Kokomo Murase completed a golden snowboard Big Air Olympic double for Japan on Monday, after Kira Kimura had won the men's competition on the weekend. X Games champion Murase clinched the gold four years after bronze on her final jump with a score a score of 89.
Kokomo Murase completed a golden snowboard Big Air Olympic double for Japan on Monday, after Kira Kimura had won the men's competition on the weekend.
X Games champion Murase clinched the gold four years after bronze on her final jump with a score a score of 89.25 for a total 179.00 points.
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand got silver as in 2022 with 172.25 points and along with bronze in 2018 plus a slopestyle gold in 2022 is the first snowboarder to win four Olympic medals.
South Korea's Yu Seung-eun took bronze with 171.00 points.
"It's a gold medal that brings me immense joy. The moment when winning Olympic gold, something I've long aspired to, became a reality," Murase said.
"I wasn't sure I would make it onto the podium until I landed that third run. When I did, the emotions flooded over me."
"I feel I've grown (from 2022). I attacked from the first run, which I hadn't done last time, so I genuinely feel that's where my growth lies."
Murase is the first Big Air winner other than Austrian Anna Gasser, who missed a historic third snowboard gold in eighth place after falling on her first jump and also making a mistake in her second with the same trick.
Murase's victorys came two days after Kimura and Ryoma Kimata won gold and silver for Japan in the men's event. Both are the first Big Air golds for Japan's snowboarders.
Sadowski-Synnott meanwhile rebounded from a fall in the first run to claim another medal.
"That was an incredible final. I can't really believe I have a silver medal right now. It's so special. To be riding with the girls at that level of progression and to be a part of it is pretty sick," she said.
Category: General Sports
