Ayumu Hirano on Friday landed the triple cork, but Scotty James rode away with the win, leaving the calculus on the halfpipe as hazy as ever at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado, as James notched his fourth career victory even though he did not attempt snowboarding’s most difficult trick.
The question heading into the Winter Olympics is whether the triple is even worth it.
Less than five weeks after becoming the first to do it in competition, Hirano again landed a triple-flipping jump on his first trick, but — as was the case the first time — Hirano could not land the next jump.
Photo: AP
Riders usually need to land at least five to complete a run and nobody has yet made a triple cork part of a full run in competition.
It left Hirano, a two-time Olympic silver medalist, with a silver in Aspen as well.
James, who took bronze at the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea four years ago, earned another gold.
Photo: AP
“The triple is so difficult,” Hirano said through a translator. “And then, it’s also tough to link the next trick.”
So far, James’ best has featured the switchback double cork 1260 — a daunting, near-blind trick that involves two head-over-heels flips after riding backward up the wall, then spinning toward the top of the pipe.
He executed it on his first three runs and the judges placed him ahead of Hirano after the second.
No scores are given at the X Games — judges simply rank the riders based on their overall impression of the runs.
Hirano’s younger brother, Kaishu, finished third.
“Switch backside still has a lot of clout, which you still don’t see that much of,” James said. “And I think it played a key part for me tonight against Ayumu.”
After Hirano fell on his final run, James, who was last on the start list, simply went for straight airs on a victory lap.
This was James’ first contest in the US this season, and he has been playing it coy about the triple cork.
“I’ll leave it as a mystery,” he said.
The next chance to find out what he has been working on in a secret setting in Europe is the Feb. 11 halfpipe finals in the mountains outside Beijing.
Friday’s other winners included Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand, who pulled an upset over two-time Olympic champion Jamie Anderson in snowboard slopestyle, and Tess Ledeux in big air skiing.
Kelly Sildaru won the women’s ski halfpipe for her ninth career X Games medal.
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