EDMONTON 鈥� No Canadians made it to the podium at Saturday night鈥檚 FIS World Cup Big Air Snowboard event at Commonwealth Stadium. But the night saw some snowboarding history being made.
New Zealand鈥檚 Zoi Sadowski-Synnott struck gold in the women's event, while Japan鈥檚 Taiga Hasegawa won the men's final.
Sadowski-Synnott earned her gold by acing a jump that, before this weekend, had never been tried before in women鈥檚 snowboarding.
She stunned many of her fellow riders when she nailed a switchback 1260 and got a whopping 99 out of 100 in qualifying. She tried it with her first jump in the finals, but fell.
She tried it again with jump No. 2, got a 97.25 score, and never looked back.
鈥淭hat trick hasn鈥檛 been done in competition before, so I didn鈥檛 really know what to expect," said Sadowski-Synnott, who took silver at the 2022 Winter Olympics Big Air competition. 鈥淚鈥檓 super-hyped on the score.鈥�
But, after missing that first jump, she knew the pressure was on. Two of the three jumps count toward the final score, so she left herself no margin for error.
鈥淚t really sucked, not landing the first one,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut I just stick with the jump, I鈥檝e done it so many times over the past few days, and the vibe was so good here.鈥�
Hasegawa hit all three of his tricks, all five-rotation 1800s, to win the men's event. China鈥檚 Su Yiming, winner of gold in Big Air at the 2022 Olympics, finished second. After taking a year off, American Redmond Gerard returned to World Cup competition in Edmonton and collected the bronze.
Nicolas Laframboise of Saint Jean, Que., was the top men鈥檚 finisher in qualifying, but finished sixth. He wowed the crowd in 2022 when he earned bronze, while wearing a blue Edmonton Oilers alternate jersey while he completed his tricks. This year, he added a bright orange Oilers helmet to the wardrobe.
And he put on a show 鈥� he began his first run by coming to a stop 20 feet out of the gate. He raised his arms, urging the crowd to make more noise. Laframboise resumed his run and nailed a triple-backside-flip.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 how I gauge my speed for that trick,鈥� he said.聽
He landed his second jump, a backside 1620. But he lost out on a podium bid when he failed to hit his third trick.
鈥淚 was going for something big, a backside quad 18 (five rotations). I think if I had nailed it, it would have been good enough to get me on the box (podium). But this is a bit of a small jump to do it. I didn鈥檛 get any power off the takeoff.鈥�
He said that jump is something that鈥檚 best reserved for the larger mountain jumps.聽
Liam Brearley of Granvenhust, Ont., didn鈥檛 land his second attempt cleanly and took a heavy fall in his third jump and finished seventh.
鈥淚t didn鈥檛 go quite my way in the finals,鈥� said Brearley. 鈥淚 wanted to clean up my second trick, but couldn鈥檛 get it done, but I am still happy with the result.鈥�
Sadowski-Synnott won a women鈥檚 competition that was plagued with missed tricks. Only 10 of 24 attempted jumps were completed successfully. She finished ahead of Great Britain鈥檚 Mia Brookes and Anna Gasser, the Austrian who has won gold medals in Big Air at the previous two Olympic Games.
It was a disappointing night for the Canadians. Jasmine Baird of Georgetown, Ont., won this event in 2022, but she fell on her second and third attempts and had to settle for seventh.
She had a heavy crash on her third run.
鈥淚 thought I was going bigger than I was,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 kind of slowed down my rotation. Once I spotted the landing, I was thinking, 鈥榦h, this won鈥檛 work.鈥� It was too late at that point. Oh well, no injuries, so all good."
Quebec City鈥檚 Laurie Blouin fell on each of her three jumps and finished eighth.
Australian Valentino Guseli, who won the 2022-23 men鈥檚 overall World Cup Big Air title, failed to land two of three jumps in the semifinals and didn鈥檛 make it to Saturday night鈥檚 final.
After 13 of 21 female competitors pulled out in 2022 because they couldn鈥檛 gather enough speed to get the airtime needed to complete their tricks, organizers made major changes to the course.
This year riders plunged down a 15-storey ramp that extended 100 feet above the top row of the top deck of Commonwealth Stadium. That ramp was two storeys longer than it was in 2022.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2023.
Steven Sandor, The Canadian Press
