GOLDEN BOY!
American snowboarder Kotsenburg wins first event at Sochi Games
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia – American snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg captured the first gold medal of the 2014 Sochi Games on Saturday, winning the inaugural slopestyle event that organizers hope will attract a new generation of fans to the Olympics.
Kotsenburg, a la id-back 20-year-old from Utah, whirled through the blue skies above the brand new mega-resort of Rosa Khutor and received a score of 93.50 from a panel of judges. His flag-waving Olympic celebration set a new benchmark of international recognition for a sport that was skiing’s subversive stepchild when he was born.
“It feels awesome,” Kotsenburg said. “I don’t know what to call it. I have no idea what’s actually going on. This is the craziest thing that ever happened.”
On the first Olympic men’s slopestyle podium, Kotsenburg was joined by Staale Sandbech of Norway (91.75) and Mark McMorris of Canada (88.75), longtime friends.
Slopestyle snowboarding, where competitors slide on rails and fly off enormous snow ramps to execute dizzying aerial maneuvers, has been a mainstay of ESPN’s Winter X Games for more than a decade. The International Olympic Committee hopes to capitalize on its appeal among younger television audiences. The
women’s slopestyle event is scheduled for Sunday.
“Snowboarding has no kind of limits,” Sandbech said. “You can do bigger tricks and you can do more spins and flips. You can do creative grabs and you can do more grabs. Sage obviously did some super tech creative grabs and a 1620 — he had such a sick rail run.”
Slopestyle scores are meant to reflect the difficulty and creativity of the
tricks, which combine multiple flips and rotations. Style is also an important factor, described by riders as a perceived effortlessness in performing the tricks from takeoff to landing. Halfpipe star Shaun W hite was expected to par ticipate in the slopestyle event up until Wednesday, when he announced that a wrist injury had caused him to withdraw. White will compete in the men’s halfpipe on Tuesday night.