The finals started and at this point it was anyone’s game, all of the riders were throwing down through practice and the eliminations. There were a couple of sketchy first runs, but when Max Parrot landed his Cab triple cork 1620 Indy for a mega 47.00 points there was a definite ripple through the stadium that this was his game to win.

Mark McMorris looked to be stuggling in the finals despite putting down super clean runs throughout the rest of the day, and Stian Kleivdal suffered similarly. Sven Thorgren had a nice tech first run but got a 10.66 for his second which put the pressure on for his final run. Yuki Kadono decided to go the opposite way to Sven and started off with his worst run of the day, but received a 48.00, the highest score of the day for his second run. America’s Chris Corning was a strong contender for bronze the whole way through but got pipped at the last minute by Kadono.

Max Parrot was the only rider to put down three solid runs, absolutely stomping each one, with his score of 43.66 being the lowest he received. Sven put the pressure on by riding clean away from his frontside triple cork mute but no one could catch Parrot. The podium ended up Gold for Parrot, Silver for Thorgren and Bronze for Kadono. The hero of the day was Max, for not only landing 3 disgustingly clean runs, but for doing so just weeks after getting the all clear.

The ladies event was no less of a spectacle, with some of the biggest names in snowboarding showing up to snatch the Gold. The drop in started to get a bit sketchy and unpredictable and at times the women looked to be struggling with the run in to the lip, with Jamie Anderson almost taking a meaty slam halfway down.

Anna Gasser put in 2 super saucy runs immediately to secure herself a comfortable lead, with Jamie Anderson and last years gold medalist Kokomo Murase nipping at her heels. Murase is an incredible athlete, and at just 14 years old she threw down a BS 720 mute followed by a FS double cork 900 indy, at 14 I could barely tie my own shoe laces. Julia Marino had a bit of a sketchy start but came back swinging with an incredibly strong second run. Laurie Blouin had one of the highest scores as her 3rd, but for the Queen of Audi Nines it wasn’t quite enough to hop onto the podium.

Despite Jamie’s prowess at sweeping X Games medals she couldn’t quite stomp the landings she was after and walked away with 5th. Other than the podium finishes, the run that caught everyones attention was X Games rookie Annika Morgan’s 3rd attempt (check it out here). She intentionally knuckled the kicker to attempt a frontie, who pops their X Games cherry and does that?! That’s so fucking badass. Big props to the Mini Morgan.

In the end Anna couldn’t be trifled with, and Murase took silver despite her double cork 1260. Bronze medalist was American Julia Marino who put down solid runs throughout, but couldn’t quite find the gusto to overtake. Shoutout to every athlete who competed in this X Games, the standard was incredibly high and it was EXXXXTREME as shit from start to finish.