Murase Kokomo aims to be Japan's first snowboarder to win Olympic gold

Murase Kokomo has her sights on rewriting the record books once more at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

The Japanese athlete became the youngest Winter X Games champion when she won the snowboard big air in Oslo, Norway, in 2018.

At 13 years old Murase was also the youngest big air snowboard competitor in the history of the X Games.

During the competition she wrote another entry in the history books as the first female snowboarder to land a 1260 double cork in competition only four months after she learned it.

Murase, who does not turn 18 until November, would become Japan's first snowboard gold medallist if she was to triumph at the Winter Olympics.

With wins in the big air and slopestyle and a third-place finish at the World Cup so far this season, her form indicated she was a title contender coming into Beijing.

So it proved with the 17-year-old qualifying for the slopestyle final in second place with 81.45pts behind Zoi Sadowski-Synott (86.75) and she will contest the final run on Sunday (6 Feb) at 10:24 local time (02:24 GMT).

That bore out her ambitions coming into the Olympic Winter Games as she told kyodonews.net: "I've been on the podium for most World Cup events (I have competed in this season).

"I want to keep this form through to Beijing."

Murase stakes her claim away from the spotlight

Takeuchi Tomoka is the only Japanese woman to have won a snowboarding medal so far, coming away from Sochi 2014 with silver in the parallel giant slalom.

38-year-old Takeuchi will compete in her sixth Games in Beijing, 20 years after she made her Olympic debut at Salt Lake City 2002.

Overall Japan has claimed three silvers and a bronze since snowboarding was introduced to the programme at Nagano 1998, six years before Murase was born.

The spotlight was on two-time champion Jamie Anderson following Saturday's slopestyle qualification run with the American progressing in fifth.

Pyeongchang 2018 bronze medallist Enni Rukajarvi was third through, with Laurie Blouin, who won silver four years ago, progressing in seventh.

Sadowski-Synott finished 13th at PyeongChang 2018 but she won the world title in 2021 and 2019 and also claimed Olympic bronze in big air four years ago.

Murase though is focused only on her own performance, bolstered by the mental resilience forged after sustaining a severe injury to her right knee at the close of 2018.

"I've developed this mindset of being confident with my runs, and never on any day forget the will to win at whatever cost," she said.

"It was my childhood dream to compete at the Olympics. Now I'm there, I want to get good results in both events to return to Japan with a smile."

When and where to watch snowboarding at the Olympic Winter Games

The women's slopestyle final run will take place on Sunday 6 February at 10:24 Beijing local time (02:24 GMT, 18:24 PST on Friday)

The women's big air first qualification run will take place on Monday 14 February at 09:30 Beijing local time (01:30 GMT, 17:30 PST on Sunday) with the second run at 10:15 (02:15 GMT, 18:15 PST on Sunday) and the final run at 11:00 (02:00 GMT, 19:00 PST on Sunday).

The big air first final run will take place on Tuesday 15 February at 09:30 Beijing local time (02:30 GMT, 17:30 PST on Monday) with the second run at 09:52 (01:52 GMT, 17:52 PST on Monday) and the final run at 10:15 (02:15 GMT, 18:15 PST on Monday).