Big Air, Women

Big air for men and women had made its Olympic début at PyeongChang 2018 and was being held for only the second time at the Winter Olympics. The event is an extreme form of slopestyle and had been held at the World Championships since 2003, although only for women since 2015. It was a part of the World Cup circuit since 2016/17 and débuted at the X Games in 2008. Scored differently than slopestyle it consists of the best two of three runs added together for a final score.

Austrian Anna Gasser was the defending gold medalist and had won the 2017 World Championships. She was expected to be challenged by Canada’s Laurie Blouin, the 2021 World Champion and already a silver medalist in slopestyle at Beijing 2022, and New Zealander Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, who had taken gold in slopestyle in Beijing and was runner-up to Blouin at the 2021 Worlds.

All three qualified easily with Sadowski-Synnott leading the way followed by Japan’s Kokomo Murase. In the final Sadowski-Synnott took the lead on the first run, followed by Gasser and Australian [Tess Coady], but Coady would fall on her final two runs and finish ninth.

After two runs it was very close with Sadowski-Synnott totaling 177.00 and Gasser 176.75, but Gasser’s final run of 95.50 brought her a second gold medal in big air. Sadowski-Synnott took silver and Murase followed with bronze.

Murase was only 17-years-old but she would return and win gold in the event at MiCo 2026. Sadowski-Synnott’s silver medal made her the first female snowboarder with a complete set of Olympic medals, after a bronze in big air in 2018 and a gold in slopestyle earlier at Beijing.