Confident Olympian Lee Chaeun wins first snowboard slopestyle Youth Olympic gold for Gangwon 2024 hosts: ‘There was no way I’d miss out'
Top Korean medal hope returned from the senior circuit to make “dream come true” at the Winter Youth Olympic Games with father watching from the stands, while USA’s Henry Townshend fended off top competition from the north to take gold in freeski slopestyle.
Lee Chaeun was a picture of joy as he landed at the finish line of the men’s snowboard slopestyle competition, his arms raised high, the crowd in front of him erupting in cheers.
The Korean snowboarder had already made headlines less than a year ago, in March 2023, when he won the world title in halfpipe, but slopestyle was not considered his strong event. The Beijing 2022 Olympian has never won a major medal in this discipline – until the day it mattered most, at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in his home nation, in front of his family.
“The Youth Olympic Games is truly special and its location in the Republic of Korea has been a great source of motivation for me,” Lee told Olympics.com at the finish line. “I won gold at the world championships and two medals in the World Cup series. However, this Youth Olympics gold makes me feel like I’ve come a bit closer to winning a medal at the Olympics.”
Earlier in the day, USA's Henry Townshend won gold in the men's freeski slopestyle event by amping up his qualification runs with a few riskier tricks.
Republic of Korea celebrates first snowboard slopestyle gold at YOG
Lee was brimming with confidence from the start, collecting a 91.50 score on his first run and managing to improve on that on his third try with a 96.00.
Even before the final score was announced, Lee was in celebration mode.
“I was confident I’d win a medal, so I happily crossed the finish line, knowing there was no way I’d miss out on one,” he said.
As his expectations were confirmed on the scoreboard, Lee rushed to the spectators to embrace his father who was watching the competition and waving a Republic of Korea flag.
“He has been with me since I was young, accompanying me to training sessions,” Lee said. “He played a significant role in shaping who I am today, so I wanted to run to him and say thank you.”
Seeing Lee’s high scores, top qualifier Eli Bouchard threw a trick he learned only one week ago, a cab 16, into his routine in the hopes of trumping the Korean’s score.
**“**The guys here, they were putting things down, so I had to push it up,” the Canadian rider said, sharing that he felt nervous about the decision but still opted to take the risk. “It's part of the game, so you got to do it.”
The risk paid off as Bouchard landed a best of 90.00, not enough to take over Lee but enough for silver.
France’s Romain Allemand rounded off the podium with bronze after picking up 89.25 points on his second run. Like Bouchard, Allemand stepped up his tricks to remain competitive in the high-scoring final.
**“**When you see your friends do some big tricks, it was like, ‘Oh, I need to do something big’, and you go big,” he explained. “If you win or not, it's cool because you send it and enjoy.”
Henry Townshend in action during the freeski slopestyle final at Gangwon 2024.
Townshend flies to gold with stellar first run
In the earlier men's freestyle skiing slopestyle event, USA’s Henry Townshend booked his top spot from the start with a 90.25-scoring first run that would not be challenged for the remainder of the competition.
“It means a lot. It's definitely the biggest achievement I've had so far,” the freeskier told Olympics.com. “I started when I was super young. My whole life I've been skiing and then started freestyle skiing six or seven years ago. It's been everything to me and that's kind of all I do.”
Seventh to qualify, Townshend mixed up his tricks in the final, taking out the backslide with a 450 off the rail and switching to a front 6 instead, which got him the top score he was looking for.
Japan’s Olly Nicholls jumped into the medals in the final run, scoring 85.75, which dropped Finland’s Jaakko Koskinen to bronze.
Things did not go according to plan for junior world champion Charlie Beatty, however. The Canadian flagbearer put down “one of the best runs of my life” in the qualification to score 92.25 points, but was unable to replicate that result in the final.
He missed training due to a miscommunication and was sitting at the bottom of the table after two lacklustre runs. With the other skiers scoring in the 80s and 90s, Beatty upgraded his runs to try to get into medals contention.
“Definitely a few things that I tried to up,” he said. “Wanting to just give it all at that point. You had some really good runs that have done really well and getting in the 90s, and if I wanted to do as well as I could, I had to go for it and try to challenge those.”
While the strategy did not deliver the result he wanted, Beatty said he was still proud of his performance and now looks ahead to his next event, Big Air. The qualifications for Big Air take place on Saturday 27 January.
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.
