Big Air snowboarder Murase Yura flies high like older sister and Olympic medallist to get first gold for Japan at Gangwon 2024
Japanese teen gets inspired by Beijing 2022 medallist sister Murase Kokomo to win Youth Olympic gold at Gangwon 2024, while Eli Bouchard puts down two 90s scores to get Canada's second gold of the Games in a single day.
Snowboard
Murase Yura did not have to look far for an example to follow when targeting the gold medal in women’s snowboard Big Air.
Her older sister Murase Kokomo won bronze at Beijing 2022, and has been by her side throughout the journey. The two sisters grew up riding together, and the younger Murase joined her sister on the World Cup circuit starting in October 2022.
Standing with a gold medal from Gangwon 2024 around her neck - Japan's first at these Youth Olympic Games - Murase said she owed a part of that success to her sister’s earlier Olympic journey.
“She is the closest person to me and won a medal [in Beijing], which boosted my feeling toward winning a medal and the meaning of Olympics,” Murase told Olympics.com. “Since then, I’ve practiced hard every day toward that.”
The 16-year-old had a tough start to the competition, sitting in 8th place out of 10 after the first run. Her second run, however, was the second highest-scoring of the competition. The extra 79.50 points bumped her into the Top 5, but still well out of medal reach.
With pressure building ahead of her final run, Murase looked calm as she took off into the ramp, delivering the score that put her in the lead with a total of 154.25 points.
“I didn’t get a good result in slopestyle, so now I’m very happy [to win a medal in Big Air],” said Murase, who finished fifth in the slopestyle event. “I wasn’t so nervous at the runs and believed that I could stand [on the podium].”
A near podium miss in the slopestyle also fired up USA’s Rebecca Flynn, who finished fourth in her first event at Gangwon 2024. She led after the second run, but did not manage to increase her total score in the third run, finishing 0.75 points the Japanese rider with silver.
“I'm just happy I put down two clean runs today. Everyone killed it,” Flynn said. “There's so much progression. It's awesome to see what girls are chucking now, and it's really cool to be a part of that.”
Meanwhile, as in slopestyle, New Zealand’s Lucia Georgalli made a last-run surge to get on the podium. A silver medallist in slopestyle, she took bronze in the Big Air.
"It's definitely a confidence boost to get a bronze," Georgalli said. "I would prefer to land my first two runs, but I'm happy I got my third run down and got a podium."
Eli Bouchard lets ‘O Canada’ once more
While Murase won Japan’s first gold, Eli Bouchard brought Canada their second.
Canada’s first came just a few hours before when Charlie Beatty won the freestyle skiing Big Air event. Now standing among the spectators, Beatty was cheering for Bouchard together with fellow Canadian skiers and snowboarders.
And Bouchard did not disappoint.
Going into the final as the top qualifier, the 16-year-old broke into the 90s in both of his first two runs. Already assured a gold before his final try, the Canadian rider was cheerful and smiling as he dropped in for his victory lap.
"I knew already. I looked at the points before dropping and I was really happy," Bouchard said. "I'm happy to have landed all of my runs today and I did the best that I could, so I'm really happy with that."
Bouchard’s top competition in the final was Oliver Martin whose first run astounded spectators and athletes alike. The 15-year-old from USA put down a frontside triple 1800 weddle to score 97.25 points – the highest score of the day at Welli Hilli Park Ski Resort.
"I started off with the hard trick because then it would kind of just lower my nerves going into the next two, and hopefully I could land it on the first, and I would be much more confident," said the Big Air silver medallist, who has landed the high-scoring trick only four times before. "That trick is pretty hard, so it just felt awesome to land and have a good score down on the first run."
Martin’s first run had another positive side effect - it helped get a snowboard pal on the podium.
"Olly is my friend and we've been so awhile, so I was just really stoked for him," Campbell Melville Ives said. "It really inspired me to try harder tricks myself."
The New Zealand rider took bronze and will next compete in snowboarding’s closing event at Gangwon 2024, the halfpipe.
How to watch snowboard at Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Games
Action from all 13 competition days at Gangwon 2024, including every competition taking place at the Welli Hilli Park Ski Resort, will be streamed on dedicated feeds on Olympics.com and on the official Olympics app for mobile devices.
You can also watch full replays on demand on Olympics.com and catch highlights, reaction interview clips, news articles, and full results sections across the website and official Olympics social media accounts.