In 2019, Anna Gasser of Austria made history by becoming the first woman to land a cab double cork 1260 — three and a half rotations on her snowboard, with two of them overhead. She made history with the same trick again on Tuesday by becoming the first back-to-back Olympic gold medalist in women’s big air.
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand took second place, and Kokomo Murase of Japan, one of the youngest riders in the event, came in third.
Gasser, who at 30 was the oldest rider in a field where the average age was 20, set the tone early in the final, perfectly executing a frontside 1080 in her first run. But Sadowski-Synnott quickly overtook Gasser with a frontside 1080 of her own, moving into the top spot, where she stayed until Gasser’s last run.
Gasser is considered one of the sport’s most daring riders and is the only woman to have landed a triple cork — three flips done on a rotation. So when she strapped in for her final run — her only chance to bump Sadowski-Synnott — the snowboarding world waited on an expected triple cork. Instead, Gasser landed her third run with a cab 1260 and proudly threw her hands in the air as other riders ran over and embraced her.
With one more chance to retake first place, Sadowski-Synnott, a confident and consistent rider, failed to land her jump, delivering the gold to Gasser.
Last week, Sadowski-Synnott became the first athlete from New Zealand to earn a gold medal at a Winter Olympics when she won the slopestyle competition. Slopestyle is a bit of an older sibling to big air, featuring a long run of obstacles, rails and jumps; big air is one giant jump with spins and flips.
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The riders each had three jumps, and their two best scores, as judged by a panel, were added to determine the winner.
Among the contenders with podium potential was Tess Coady of Australia, the slopestyle bronze medalist, who came in eighth place after two disappointing runs.
Jamie Anderson of the United States, the most decorated female snowboarder of the past decade, failed to advance to Tuesday’s final. Courtney Rummel also failed to qualify. Their teammate Julia Marino, who won a silver medal in slopestyle, opted out of big air because of an injury sustained in training. Hailey Langland, the sole American in the final, finished last.
Snowboarding came to a close in Beijing with the men’s big air event, when Su Yiming of China took the gold and a victory lap in the air after already securing the top spot on the podium before his final run. He earned China its first medal in the event, which was added to the Olympic program in 2018.
Mons Roisland of Norway took home the silver, and Max Parrot of Canada finished with bronze.
It was a display of some of the most technical tricks in snowboarding at Shougang Park, complete with flips, twists and turns performed at gravity-defying heights. Yiming, a 17-year-old student who made his Olympic debut in Beijing, was a favorite coming into the event. Yiming will leave the Games with a silver medal in slopestyle in addition to his big air gold.
Redmond Gerard of the United States was briefly in contention for the bronze before finishing in fifth place. Chris Corning, the only other American rider in the event, opened the competition with the biggest score in the first run but ultimately came in seventh place.
In a sport that is about progression, a standout moment came after Reira Iwabuchi of Japan, who finished fourth in 2018 and was a strong medal contender this year, went for a triple cork, beating Gasser to the moment. Iwabuchi failed to land the jump, but the other riders celebrated her anyway.
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