HIRANO Ayumu

Japan

Snowboard

Olympic Medals

Games Participations4

First Olympic GamesSochi 2014

Year of Birth1998

Biography

At the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, Hirano Ayumu finally won a long-awaited gold medal in the snowboard men's halfpipe. Originally from Murakami, in Japan's Niigata Province, Hirano made his Olympic debut at Sochi 2014.

How old was Hirano Ayumu in his first Olympics?

At the age of 15, Hirano won an unexpected silver medal, becoming the youngest Japanese athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. Four years later in his second Olympic Games appearance at PyeongChang 2018, he landed the first double cork 1440 trick in Olympic history. However, halfpipe legend Shaun White (USA) beat Hirano in the final run to win the gold medal, meaning Hirano won the silver medal for the second consecutive time.

Hirano Ayumu: Snowboarding and skateboarding

Hirano is more than just a winter Olympian. At the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in 2021, he was selected to compete in the skateboarding men's park competition, an event making its debut on the Olympic Games programme. Although he was eliminated from the preliminary rounds, Hirano became just the fifth Japanese athlete to participate in both the Olympic Games in summer and the Olympic Winter Games.

Now, Hirano Ayumu is at the Park World Championships 2022 being held in Sharjah, UAE, in 2023 to try to earn ranking points to qualify for his second appearance in skateboarding at the Olympic Games, at Paris 2024.

Who is Hirano Ayumu's brother?

Hirano comes from a sporting family; his brother Kaishu has also represented Japan in snowboarding – at the 2018 Junior World Championships, where he won halfpipe bronze, then at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne where he clinched silver and then at Beijing 2022 finishing ninth behind Ayumu.

Despite sharing a surname, Hirano Ayumu and Hirano Kaishu are not related to Hirano Ruka, another Japanese halfpipe snowboarder.

Hirano Ayumu's snowboard tricks and triple cork 1440

The preparation period from Tokyo 2020 in 2021 to Beijing 2022 was only half a year, but Hirano was undeterred. Despite the challenge of competing in both skateboard and snowboard within months of each other, the Japanese managed to evolve his tricks. In December 2021, with less than two months until the Beijing 2022 snowboarding competition, he became the first man to land the triple cork 1440 trick.

Hirano Ayumu during Beijing 2022

Competing in the Beijing 2022 snowboard men's halfpipe with his younger brother kaishu, Hirano finished first in qualifying. In the first run of the final, Hirano landed the triple cork 1440 for the first time in Olympic history. On the second run, he again showed off a huge performance, including a triple cork 1440, moving up to provisional second place. Then, in the third and final run, he performed the same trick in a brilliant, clean, and dynamic manner, achieving a high score of 96.00 and winning Japan's first snowboarding gold at an Olympic Winter Games.

"Walk a dream"

Hirano's first name is 歩夢, which translates as "walk a dream". Having won an Olympic gold medal, which has been a dream of his since childhood, Hirano has already embarked on a new adventure. After his win in Beijing, he explained in a Team Japan medallist interview: "I feel like I'm starting my new path from scratch again."

What will Hirano's next dream be, and could it come in skateboarding at Paris 2024?