Chloe Kim moves closer to X Games record with snowboard Superpipe win

Olympic champion Chloe Kim moved to within one win of Kelly Clark's Winter X Games women's record by winning the snowboard superpipe in Aspen, Colorado, on Saturday (30 January).

Kim, who returned to international competition winning the Laax Open last week after taking nearly two years off, nailed a frontside 1080 as part of her routine that saw her claim her fifth X Games title in the discipline in Aspen (she also has one X Games Europe title, just as Clark does).

The youngest women's snowboard Olympic champ in history when she won the halfpipe (slightly smaller in size than a superpipe) at PyeongChang 2018, Kim admitted to ESPN afterwards that the result was a surprise for her.

"I really was not expecting to podium. Really just wanted to go into this season with a new mindset, have fun and try new runs."

It was enough to place her ahead of fellow American Maddie Mastro in the judges' view, while Japan's Matsumoto Haruna was third.

No scores were awarded, with athletes ranked on overall performance after four runs.

Gu doubles up

Chinese freeski star Gu Ailing Eileen clinched her second crown of the event with victory in the ski slopestyle, a day after winning the ski superpipe event.

Her victory on Friday made her the first athlete representing China to win an X Games crown and she doubled up on Saturday,

She had also taken bronze in Friday's ski big air for women, giving her three medals from the weekend – doubling China's total tally in the event's history.

Gu was left speechless by her accomplishments, telling ABC: "I thought I had no words last night, but I have even fewer today."

PyeongChang medallist Isabel Atkin of Great Britain won silver behind Gu, with Megan Oldham of Canada coming in third.

Switzerland's Andri Ragettli laid down a marker to other freeskiers in the men's big air competition with repeated strong runs en route to gold.

He scored 45 points or more on four of his six runs, with his total score (counting his best two runs) of 94 points being four points clear of two-time Olympian Antoine Adelisse of France and a further point better than American Alex Hall.

Freeski big air makes its Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 next year, and all three will be looking to make their mark.

Six events will conclude the meet on Sunday, including Shaun White's return to snowboarding in the superpipe event.