With silver in big air, Jamie Anderson makes snowboarding history
DAEGWALLYEONG, South Korea - Jamie Anderson is a highflying, trailblazing, free-spirited snowboarding daredevil who, by now, has grown plenty accustomed to being the best, the baddest - and the first.
Anderson added to her medal haul by winning silver in the women's big air competition Thursday morning, becoming the first female snowboarder to win two medals at a single Olympics. Her three career Olympic medals tie her with Shaun White and Kelly Clark, the iconic American halfpipe riders.
"That's crazy to me. It's all pretty surreal," she said. "Just being able to be an Olympian is such a treat. But to come here and win medals is, wow, next level."
Anderson had already successfully defended her Olympic title from Sochi in the women's slopestyle competition and took aim Thursday morning at the inaugural big air competition, a staple of the Winter X Games that's making its Olympic debut at the Pyeongchang Games.
Unlike snowboarding's halfpipe or slopestyle, the big air event consists of a single trick. Riders shoot down a 160-foot ramp, launch into the air and perform as many spins and flips as possible.
The big air winner is determined by adding the two best scores from the three-run finals. Anderson, 27, had posted the sixth-highest score in the qualification round but sent a big message with the first of her three runs in the finals. She landed a dizzying frontside 1080 spin, earning a score of 90.0 and giving her an edge with two tricks to go.
Her second trick - a 980 - earned her an 87.25, which meant she had two of the day's four highest scores heading into the competition's final runs. Anderson held a 2.75-point lead over Austria's Anna Gasser, who won the big air world title last year and was considered by many to be a favorite for gold. Gasser had posted the top score in qualifying - a 98.0 - and Anderson knew she needed to go bigger with her final run. She settled on a cab 1080 - three full spins - even though she'd never before landed the trick.
She came close but couldn't put it down cleanly, giving Gasser a window.
"I was definitely a little bit disappointed because that one I really just wanted to do for me," Anderson said. "That's how it is. Sometimes you land them, sometimes you don't. But you get up and keep freakin' charging."
All Anderson could do was watch as Gasser took her place at the top of the ramp. The Austrian rider was planning the biggest trick of the competition - a cab double cork 1080, which is essentially two flips and one full spin.
"That was a little risk I took," Gasser explained later. "I wasn't sure, 'Should I keep it safe? Should I just do that trick again and get a better score? Or should I risk it?' But I watched the girls and everyone was so good, so I was like 'okay, I'm going to try to do this trick.' "
Gasser landed it, and a big score seemed inevitable.
"Insane," the bronze-medal winner Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand said. "She is on another level."
Gasser had spun and flipped her way to the top spot of the podium. Her final run was scored a 96.0 which gave Gasser a total of 185.0, besting Anderson's 177.25.
"I felt really peaceful, honestly," Anderson said. "Because I came out and did what I wanted to do. That's all I can do. The rest of it is out of my power."
Anderson was all smiles afterward, happy to take home both gold and silver medals from Pyeongchang. And she isn't ruling out adding to her medal haul and returning to the Olympics in 2022.
"I hate future-tripping, so I can't say yet," she said. "But I love it, and as long as I'm still healthy and happy and enjoying it, I would love to continue."