In 2019, Anna Gasser of Austria made history by becoming the first woman to land a cab double cork 1260 — three and a half rotations on her snowboard, with two of them overhead. She made history with the same trick again on Tuesday by becoming the first back-to-back Olympic gold medalist in women’s big air.
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand took second place, and Kokomo Murase of Japan, one of the youngest riders in the event, came in third.
Gasser, who at 30 was the oldest rider in a field where the average age was 20, set the tone early in the final, perfectly executing a frontside 1080 in her first run. But Sadowski-Synnott quickly overtook Gasser with a frontside 1080 of her own, moving into the top spot, where she stayed until Gasser’s last run.
Gasser is considered one of the sport’s most daring riders and is the only woman to have landed a triple cork — three flips done on a rotation. So when she strapped in for her final run — her only chance to bump Sadowski-Synnott — the snowboarding world waited on an expected triple cork. Instead, Gasser landed her third run with a cab 1260 and proudly threw her hands in the air as other riders ran over and embraced her.
With one more chance to retake first place, Sadowski-Synnott, a confident and consistent rider, failed to land her jump, delivering the gold to Gasser.
Last week, Sadowski-Synnott became the…
