The next big leap in snowboarding went down on Sunday on a sun-splashed halfpipe in Colorado with a trick that set the stakes for the gold-medal race to Beijing.
Japanese snowboarding star Ayumu Hirano finished fifth at the Dew Tour, but his spot in the standings hardly mattered. What did was that he became the first person to land the difficult, dangerous and once unthinkable triple-cork jump in competition.
“It’s just a game-changer because the level of halfpipe riding has gotten so crazy,” said snowboarding commentator Jonathan “DC” Oetken, who was at the bottom of the pipe.
Photo: AFP
Hirano, a two-time Olympic silver medalist, pulled off what is officially called a frontside triple cork 1440, a jump that involves three head-over-heels flips with a twist while grabbing the board above the nearly 7m-high halfpipe.
Hirano’s history-making jump at the top of the pipe made him wobbly in the setup to the next trick. He fell on it and did not finish the run, which accounted for the fifth-place finish.
However, there was no denying that in a sport that treasures progression over practically everything else, his jump will be the buzz of the halfpipe world as the sport makes its way to the Olympics, and probably beyond.
“This is crazy,” said Hirano’s Japanese teammate, Yuto Totsuka, who won the contest. “I will make sure [to have it in] the next competition.”
All the top Japanese riders, including Totsuka and third-place finisher, Ruka Hirano, have been working on the trick in practice.
“I was very happy to land the triple cork in competition for the first time,” Ayumu Hirano said through an interpreter.
Whoever lands it best, or at all, could be wearing a gold medal around their neck come Feb. 11 in the mountains above Beijing, but in a sport that lives for progression, Ayumu Hirano will always be able to say he did it first.
“Everybody would agree that we are pushing the limits of what is possible,” Oetken said.
Chloe Kim of the US came out on top in the women’s competition with a score of 96, beating out Spain’s Queralt Castellet and China’s Xuetong Cai.
Kim had dropped to seventh after falls in her first two runs, but was able to edge ahead of Castellet by one point and get the win thanks to a near-perfect third run.
“That was so stressful. I hate when I’m in that situation when it comes to the third and final run,” Kim said.
“Just putting myself in those high-stress situations, especially with the Olympics coming up is pretty important. So, happy I was able to pull through,” she said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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