What. A. Show. As the Olympic dust settles, we look back on some of our favourite moments from everything that went down in Beijing. You’ve already guessed our number one, right?
1800’s were very much on the cards but Team USA’s Chris Corning brought the heat with the first quad cork in Olympic history during Big Air finals. Unfortunately he didn’t manage to make the podium, but it sure was a sight to see.
Yes, we know, he’s a skier. But come on, just look at this, it’s fuckin’ nuts.
😱 This is ridiculous!
🇫🇮 Simo Peltola lands on ONE ski!
📺💻📱 Watch on @BBCiplayer and Red Button: https://t.co/uvVK1S2A71#bbcolympics #Beijing2022 #SkiJumping t pic.twitter.com/fJmsa6OCLi
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) February 7, 2022
Another world first attempt from Japan’s Reira Iwabuchi. She hucked her stuff and went for the Triple during the women’s Big Air finals, unfortunately she couldn’t stick the landing but big up for trying. Oh, and she did it all with a broken hand…
He’s our favourite, he’s your favourite, he’s everyone’s favourite to be fair. Ståle took a tumble during his Slopestyle run and knew he wouldn’t be able to save it, so instead of being lame he sent this giant method (see Slide 3). There were some controversial moments during Slopestyle, but this wasn’t one of them. What a guy. (Still not our favourite method of the games though…)
Love him or hate him, there’s no denying the impact Shaun White has had on snowboarding, and more specifically halfpipe. With 3 Gold Medals already in the bag, he came into his fifth Olympic Games in Beijing knowing it would be his last competitive performance. Although he fell in his final run and didn’t manage to podium, he still put on a helluva show and this will go down in history as one of the most emotional halfpipe runs of all time.
Turin, 2006. One of the most tragically iconic moments in Olympic snowboarding history. Lindsay Jacobellis threw away a Gold medal and never managed to get close to winning one since. Fast forward 16 years, and in her mid-30’s she finally managed to get that redemption Gold.
Now, this will be one everyone remembers, this controversy will be quoted for decades to come. It’s hard to remember a judging call that stirred up quite as much chatter – or as much vitriol – as the decision to award the slopestyle gold to Max Parrot on Monday. We spoke to the Head Judge, gathered opinions from the snowboard community and tried to make sense of what went down.
Hoooly shit. This was insane to watch. Easily one of the cleanest and heftiest runs in halfpipe history. Japan’s Ayumu Hirano hit the triple cork 14 (and also received a pretty scandalous score initially) before eventually taking home the well-deserved gold.
The women’s slopestyle finals came right down to the wire, with the 20-year-old Kiwi claiming the highest score of the day (a 92.33, the only competitor to break 90.00) after landing a massive backside 1080 on the final kicker of the course. Just listen to that slap. The atmosphere after Zoi landed showed the true spirit of snowboarding, mobbed by her competitors for a giant group hug bundle. Not only a win for Zoi S-S, but a win for women’s snowboarding.
Lucile Lefevre injured herself earlier in the games, instead of bowing out, she decided to have a bit of Tiger King style fun.
USA’s Slopestyle Silver medallist Julia Marino had issues with the IOC after they tried to make her cover up the base on her Prada snowboard. She subsequently fell and got injured during Big Air. Turns out Biggie was right with ‘Mo Money, Mo Problems’.
IG post by Julia Marino whose board was approved, and then later she was made to *draw* over the @Prada logo, which changed the board friction. Once again, the Olympic motto: making up rules as we go. pic.twitter.com/DFNLaoZGOF
— David Epstein (@DavidEpstein) February 15, 2022
You knew it was coming, it was easily the coolest thing to come out of Beijing 2022 and you can quote us on that one. Kaishu Hirano sets a new world record and wins hearts across the world with this insanity. For reference, he’s over 24 feet out the lip of the pipe. The style, the grace, the hangtime- *chefs kiss*.
In 1996, Ingemar Backman threw the HUGE backside air on the right hand side of the below pic, as our esteemed Editor-At-Large, Ed Blomfield, put it “25 years later, and what was once the stuff of fantasy is now the first hit of a pipe run- that doesn’t make the podium”.
So, that’s it, the five-ringed circus is done for another four years. The Olympics aren’t everyone’s cup of tea (looking at you Terje) but fundamentally all the riders turned up for the sport, showed the world what snowboarding is about, broke records, made history and ultimately did us all proud. See y’all in Italy, 2026…
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