Snowboarding
Sildaru and McMorris make history at 2020 Winter X Games
Keep up-to-date with the biggest performances from all the competitions at this year's Winter X Games in Aspen.
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Kelly Sildaru seals a golden double
Not content with ‘just’ her Ski Superpipe gold medal, Estonian teen sensation Kelly Sildaru added another title to her incredibly impressive resume with gold in the Ski Slopestyle on Sunday in Aspen.
Sildaru managed to see off Sarah Hoefflin and Maggie Voisin with a second run that included a rightside 900 with a mute grab, followed by a leftside 900 with a tail grab and then a rightside 720 off the fin to cap off a tremendous week and put her into the record books.
The Slopestyle gold means Sildaru now has nine Winter X Games medals to match Shaun White for the most by a teenage athlete, while her five golds are the most by any athlete aged 17 or younger.
A delighted, but understated Sildaru revealed to The Aspen Times: "I'm just trying to enjoy it and have fun skiing."
Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud finished in fifth place, while France's Tess Ledeux had to settle for eighth place after her gold medal heroics in Ski Big Air on Friday.
Zeb Powell of the United States captured gold in the Snowboard Knuckle Huck, with the 19-year-old from North Carolina holding off Norwegian star Marcus Kleveland for the win.
And Kiwi Nico Porteous finished just outside the medals in the Ski SuperPipe with Canadian Noah Bowman eighth, while Canadian Craig McMorris was seventh in Rail Jam.
Kelly Sildaru in the Ski Slopestyle at Winter X Games 2020
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
Gold for Kelly Sildaru and Queralt Castellet in the Superpipe and silver for Mark McMorris in the Big Air
Estonian teen star Kelly Sildaru went into the Ski Superpipe final with seven X-Games medals already, including three golds in Slopestyle. Her previous best Superpipe performance came a year ago, when she took silver.
The 17-year-old came out strongly, landing a Switch 900 as the final trick of her first run to temporarily take top spot. She was in a constant battle for the lead with Canada's Rachael Karker throughout the competition. Runs two and three, both clean and full of variation, were enough to move her back into first each time, but it was her hugely technical fourth run, which featured three different 900s, that sealed the deal.
The win, Sildaru's fourth at X Games, moves her level with snowboarder Chloe Kim in terms of gold medals. Karker took silver, while the bronze went to Canada's Cassie Sharpe.
Sildaru said: “I didn’t expect that today. It’s pretty tough doing all three disciplines. I just tried to enjoy tonight and that happened.”
Kelly Sildaru in action during the Ski Superpipe final
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In the Snowboard Superpipe, Queralt Castellet maintained the form that saw her win in the Halfpipe at the recent Laax Open, but she had to wait, hold her nerve and maintain her consistency to secure her first X Games gold.
The last rider to drop on each of her runs, Castellet saved her best for her third trip down the pipe, getting the crowd on their feet with a backside 900 immediately followed by a frontside 900. Her final run, the last of the contest, saw her stick another front 900 to ensure she went one better than last year's silver.
Despite both landing 1080s during the competiton, Kurumi Imai and Haruna Matsumoto of Japan had to settle for silver and bronze respectively.
Castellet said: "I always want to clean up the run with a front nine. When I had the opportunity, I decided to do the back nine in front. It’s very hard to land, but I decided to give it a go."
Celebrating another Superpipe win
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Mark McMorris secured his 18th career X Games medal in the Snowboard Big Air to equal Shaun White's Winter X Games medals total, taking silver behind fellow Canadian Max Parrot.
The lead changed hands between McMorris and Parrot throughout the 25-minute jam format, but it was almost certainly Parrot's Switch Frontside Triple Cork 1800 that clinched the gold.
Gold and silver for Tess Ledeux and Mathilde Gremaud in Ski BIg Air
French teen star Tess Ledeux added more silverware to her burgeoning trophy cabinet as she held off a late challenge from Mathilde Gremaud to top the Ski Big Air final on Friday in Aspen.
The 18-year-old 2019 FIS World Champion in the discipline had previously won gold at 2019’s X Games Norway, but her best performance in Aspen up until now had been a bronze medal in the same competition last year.
Ledeux set her stall out early during the final’s 25-minute jam format on Friday night, landing a fully-grabbed Switch Double-Cork 1260 with just three minutes on the clock.
She dropped into her second jump sitting in third place and nailed a clean Switch 1080 to move her into the top spot, before Leduex’s third run strengthened her grip on the gold medal, as she landed another backward 1080.
With seven minutes remaining on the clock, Ledeux all but sealed the win with a Switch Leftside 1260, a trick she’d never landed in competition before, holding a Japan Grab throughout.
There was still time for her rivals to mount a serious challenge for that gold, as both Kelly Sildaru of Estonia and Switzerland's Gremaud landed 1260s of their own. Gremaud, the reigning champion from 2019, stuck a Double Cork 1260 with two grabs to take home the silver medal.
The 2018 winner, Sarah Hoefflin of Switzerland, rounded out the podium in third, with Sildaru in fourth.
Tess Ledeux at Winter X Games in Aspen
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Scotty James and Miyabi Onitsuka grab golds
Australian star, Scotty James, extended his incredible run of snowboard wins to 10 by defeating Japan's Yuto Totsuka in the men's Superpipe final, while Japan's Miyabi Onitsuka overcame a star-studded field to win the women's Big Air.
James headed to Aspen on the back of another stunning triumph – this time in Laax, where he scored a superb 95.75 – and his 10th straight victory was a sweet one, as he defeated Yuto Totsuka (silver) and Switzerland's Jan Scherrer (bronze), while Toby Miller came in seventh.
This time around the format was a 30-minute final jam session, as opposed to the untimed three-run final format, with the winner determined more by overall impression instead of their best score and James, who won Aspen gold in 2017 and 2019 added another gold medal to his growing collection
Scotty James celebrating the big 10
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“The feeling never gets old,” James said. “Winning is such an amazing feeling. So much hard work goes into this. To do it here at X Games is very, very special to me. I dreamt of getting one X Games medal and I've added another one to my collection.
Meanwhile, in the women's Big Air, Onitsuka led an all Japanese podium, as she took home gold in Aspen, with Kokomo Murase grabbing silver and Reira Iwabuchi the bronze.
Onitsuka, 21, landed a frontside 1080 followed by a backside 1080 and then a massive backside 1260 – a trick that was landed twice on Thursday night after only being landed once before in women's competition – to secure a comfortable lead in the jam format.
The Kumamoto native said: "I can't believe it. Landing my backside double cork 12 to take gold. I was so stoked."
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