Miro Tabanelli lands the world’s first 2340, Americans rule men’s ski superpipe
The day had begun with another American Olympic champion on top of the podium in the men’s snowboard slopestyle.
Red Gerard delighted his hometown fans with an incredible final run that included a switch boardslide on the up-flat-down rail, switch backside triple 1620 and a backside 18 to retain his title for the second year in a row.
“Coming back as the X Games gold medallist is obviously awesome, but a full 365 days goes by, I feel like I have short term memory loss, I forget how it goes, and I always feel like a newbie when I come here,” he said after his 92.66 points that edged out his idol Canadian three-time Olympic bronze medallist Mark McMorris who took second place with his best of 90.33. Japan’s Taiga Hasegawa 81.00 was the third best.
“It’s 10 of the best riders in the world, so it’s really hard to get back to the top of the podium, so I’m just happy with how the week went.”
Canadian Frank Jobin ended the X Games snowboard street style course on top, ahead of the American pair of Nate Haust and Benny Milam who took silver and bronze medals respectively.
American’s swept the boards in the men’s ski superpipe. Nick Goepper, a six-time slopestyle medallist in slopestyle, earned his first men’s ski superpipe title at the X Games with his best of 92.66. Defending superpipe gold medallist, Alex Ferreira, finished in second with 92.00 with Hunter Hess third with 85.66.
Italy’s rising star Miro Tabanelli brought the curtains down after 72 hours of exhilarating action with a memorable ride in the men’s ski big air. Miro landed the world’s first known 2340 in ski contest history, a fantastic ending to the weekend for the Tabanelli family after his younger sister Flora won women’s ski big air on Friday [24 January].
Tabanelli scored 98.00 with with New Zealand’s Luca Harrington settling for silver with a score of 97.00. Matej Svancer’s 96.33 earned the Austrian bronze.
