American 17-year-old Red Gerard has taken home the gold medal in the men’s snowboard slopestyle with an incredible run on Saturday in PyeongChang. Gerard was an underdog to much bigger names, like Marcus Kleveland of Norway and Max Parrot of Canada.
Olympic snowboard slopestyle results 2018: America gets 1st gold thanks to 17-year-old Red Gerard
America has its first gold medal of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Photo by Ker Robertson/Getty Images
Parrot wound up taking silver in the event, while Mark McMorris, another Canadian, took bronze, Canada’s first two medals of the event. Gerard’s score of 87.16 is what won him the gold, and it came after a shaky run in the first heat with some sketchy landings.
It’s the second-straight Winter Olympics where the United States’ first medal came in the men’s snowboard slopestyle, and once again, it was an upset.
Norway and Canada are considered the “superpowers” of the men’s slopestyle, but Gerard shocked everyone with, first, an incredible qualifying run that included him going for the pipe that most avoid for a safer run.
For his qualifying run, he launched a tweaked-out indy air over the hitching post, and went 0-50 to tailslide to 270 out of the rail. It was one of the highest-scoring rail sections of the day. Kyle Mack, another U.S. rider, was putting together a great run when he crashed on the final jump.
In the qualifying round, Canada and Norway both qualified their full roster of four riders for the final. They were the heavy favorites going into the event, so it wasn’t surprising. They’re some of the strongest countries when it comes to the event.
Gerard’s final run saw him using features of the course that were ignored by other riders, who were taking it more safe. On his second jump, he opted to do a double cork off the quarterpipe takeoff, instead of using the kicker that most riders were using. He landed a perfect backside triple cork 1440 on the final jump.
Men’s slopestyle finals results
Gold: Red Gerard (USA), 87.16
Silver: Max Parrot (CAN), 86.00
Bronze: Mark McMorris (CAN), 85.20
4. Stale Sandbech (NOR), 81.01
5. Carlos Garcia Knight (NZL), 78.60
6. Marcus Kleveland (NOR), 77.76
7. Tyler Nicholson (CAN), 76.41
8. Torgeir Bergrem (NOR), 75.80
9. Niklas Mattsson (SWE), 74.71
10. Seppe Smits (BEL), 69.03
11. Sebastien Toutant (CAN), 61.08
12. Mons Roisland (NOR), DNS
See More:
