Snowboarder Su Yiming delivers China its 1st gold of Milan Cortina Games on his birthday
LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Su Yiming of China won the gold medal in men’s slopestyle snowboarding at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday.
Su collected his fourth career medal and his second of these Games on his 22nd birthday.
Taiga Hasegawa of Japan took silver and American rider Jake Canter claimed the bronze.
Su’s first of three runs that earned him 82.41 points proved enough after no rival was able to better that score.
It was China’s first gold and its seventh overall of the Milan Cortina Games. Su has won two of those.
Su, a former child actor, won gold in big air and silver in slopestyle at the Beijing 2022 Games. Last week, he took bronze in big air also in the Italian Alps.
Su cried tears, apparently of emotional release, after he completed his third run when he didn’t improve on his first run. He still had to watch seven more riders take their last shot at his score from the bottom of the course. But they all either fell or came up short with their scores.
The Livingo slopestyle course consists of three rail elements and three jumps. Judges score riders on their creativity and execution of tricks and their routine as a whole. Riders got three chances to perform their routines with only their best score counting.
Mark McMorris of Canada, a three-time bronze medalist, finished eighth two weeks after being concussed in training.
The women’s slopestyle final is later on Wednesday.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics