Slopestyle, Men

The United States had won this event in 2014 (Sage Kotsenburg) and 2018 (Red Gerard), with Gerard back attempting to defend his title. Both podiums from 2014 and 2018 were competing again, with 2014 silver medalist Ståle Sandbech (NOR), 2018 silver medalist Max Parrott (CAN), and the 2014-18 bronze medalist, Mark McMorris of Canada. Also highly considered was American Chris Corning, the 2019 World Champion.

China’s Su Yiming led the qualifying as all the medal contenders made it through. The final saw Gerard take the lead in run one with 83.25 points, but he would not improve that and finished only fourth. In run two Parrott hit the big one, scoring 90.96 points, which held up for the gold medal. Behind him Su scored 88.70 in run two and would win silver. McMorris was in fourth after the second run, but his final effort brought him his third consecutive gold medal.

Su’s silver was the first snowboarding medal by a Chinese man, and only the second ever in the sport for China, after a silver for Liu Jiayu in women’s halfpipe at PyeongChang 2018. Su would come back and win gold in big air a few days later. McMorris’s three consecutive bronze medals in the event marked the first time that had ever been done at the Winter Olympics, and only the third time ever in an individual event at the Olympics, after Arnold Vanderlijde (NED) in men’s heavyweight boxing in 1984-88-92 and Mayra Aguiar (BRA) in women’s half-heavyweight judo in 2012-16-20.