Olympic results 2018: USA’s Jamie Anderson takes the gold in women’s slopestyle

Slopestyle snowboarding has been dominated by Americans in its brief Olympic tenure. Jamie Anderson kept that streak alive Sunday, taking home gold in an abbreviated, windswept finals at the 2018 Winter Games. Anderson is now a two-time medalist after also taking the gold in Sochi four years ago.

Laurie Blouin of Canada and Enni Rukajarvi of Finland finished second and third on the podium, respectively.

Anderson had her back against the wall after heavy winds at the Phoenix Snow Park forced the cancellation of the preliminary rounds, with the final itself delayed an hour. While that meant all 26 qualifiers would automatically advance to the finals, the time crunch associated with the expanded field meant each snowboarder only have only two runs to register her high score instead of the standard three.

That wasn’t a problem for Anderson. Her first run put an 83.00 score on the board that set the standard for the rest of the event. On a day when the wind was making life hell for the snowboarders, Anderson landed a clean run with a massive 720 on the final jump. She was the final competitor on the first run and managed to overtake Norway’s Silje Norendal, who was second with a score of 73.91.

Norendal was unable to improve on her first run, with some shaky landings dropping her score to 47.66 and keeping her in second place. Blouin vaulted past Norendal with a strong second run, earning a 76.33 score and bumping American Jessika Jenson off the podium. Norendal herself got knocked out of medal contention when Rukajarvi got a 75.38 score.

Slopestyle is one of the games’ most challenging snowboard events. Competitors have to build the speed to complete bigger and better tricks, all while filling their runs with grinds and jumps that will impress the judges. On Sunday, Anderson once again showcased her dominance, clinching the gold early and making her second run a victory lap.