Jamie Anderson has successfully defended her Olympic gold medal in women’s snowboard slopestyle.
With a score of 83.00 on her first run, Anderson won the contest on a day where athletes were competing more against the weather than against each other.
Due to high winds, Sunday’s qualifying round was cancelled, and the entire field moved straight into Monday’s final. As a result of the increased field size, the format for the final was adjusted from a three-run format to a two-run format.
As if the two-run format didn’t create enough pressure, the riders also had to deal with challenging weather conditions. More wind forced a 75-minute delay, and once the contest eventually got underway, it proved to be a factor as the athletes found it difficult to put down runs.
On the first set of runs, only about a handful of the 26 riders in the final were able to land a full run, and those that did had to dial things back. When it was her turn, Anderson landed a backside 540 on the first jump and a frontside 720 on the last jump, but in between, she ran into trouble on what was supposed to be a cab double cork 900.
“I wanted to do a double 9 on my first run and I went for it and realised I wasn’t going to clear the jumps,” she said. “Somehow I connected with my lion power and found feet.”
Anderson was able to adjust on the fly and stop her rotation. That enabled her to land her run, and after that, she moved into the lead where she stayed for the rest of the event en route to a gold medal.
