New Zealand won two of the first four events, while the US won a silver and a bronze medal on Friday at the Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships in Aspen, Colorado.
New Zealand won the snowboard slopestyle for women (Zoi Sadowski-Synnott) and the ski halfpipe for men (Nico Porteous). In 2018, Sadowski-Synnott and Porteous won New Zealand’s second and third medals in the history of the Winter Olympics (both bronze).
The worlds continue on Saturday with finals in ski slopestyle and snowboard halfpipe with Olympic champion Chloe Kim. A full TV and live stream schedule is here.
On Friday, Sadowski-Synnott overtook Anderson, the greatest slopestyle rider in history, in the final run of the three-rider competition with eight riders.
Sadowski-Synnott landed a switch on the back 900, front 720, and back 1080 for 85.95 points, jumping from last to first to repeat himself as a world champion. In 2019, Sadowski-Synnott became the first New Zealand skier or snowboarder to win a world title.
She refused to include the only major snowboarding title on her resume for Anderson, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and eight-time X Games Aspen champion missing.
The Finn Enni Rukajarvi won bronze, her first slopestyle world medal since her debut in 2011 in gold.
In the men’s slopestyle, the two runs of Kleveland achieved the two highest scores – 86.86 and 90, 66, including a switch backside 1260 and a back-to-back 1620 in the latter.
Canadian Sebastien Toutant took silver, followed by Finn Rene Rinnekangas, who beat US Olympic champion Red Gerard by 0.23 Bronze won.
In the ski halfpipe, Porteous prevailed with a first run of 94.50 points and landed one month after the break of his left foot in skateboarding in a row in the 1620s. His first day in a halfpipe this week was in the same place as his X Games title in January.
Canadian Simon d’Artois held silver 3.25 points after Irving fell in his second Run had not completed a third run.
Gu, a 17-year-old who was born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother, prevailed on her world championship debut. In January Gu swept the ski halfpipe and ski slopestyle on her debut at the X Games to become an Olympic favorite in her home country next year.
Gu landed in her victorious 93-point run in a row cork 900 and competed for the first time without bars. She had a fracture and a crack in her right hand weeks ago and, according to her Instagram, is being operated upon.
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Ref: https://olympics.nbcsports.com
