Cross, Men

The men’s boardercross was held at the Phoenix Snow Park in the mountain cluster of Bongpyeong, Korea. Among the medal contenders were the defending Olympic and reigning World champion Pierre Vaultier of France, two-time World champion Alex Pullin of Australia, and Italy’s Omar Visintin, the 2014 Crystal Globe winner.

Vaultier, a five-time World Cup champion, was involved in a three-man crash in his semi-final and stepped out of his binding to push on top of the kicker, managing to get up to finish the race and qualify in third place.

In the Big Final, Vaultier led from the start, with Australia’s Jarryd Hughes maintaining an inside line to keep in touch with the Frenchman. With Pullin’s crashing, which was followed by Americans Nick Baumgartner and Mick Dierdorff, Vaultier, Hughes and Regino Hernandez of Spain were left in the medal positions.

Vaultier, the four-time Olympian, finished 0.27 of a second in front of Hughes, and successfully defended his gold medal from Sochi 2014. Hughes who had stayed close to the front won the silver medal. Hernandez became only the third Spaniard ever to win a medal at the Olympic Winter Games with his bronze medal (following Francisco Fernández Ochoa in 1972, and his younger sister Blanca Fernandez Ochoa in 1992).