Women's snowboard stars mob big air winner Gasser, almost miss ceremony
The love and respect between the women's snowboard competitors at Beijing 2022 has become famous and it was no exception after the big air final.
Snowboard
Such is the love, camaraderie and support within women’s snowboarding, Anna Gasser, Zoi Sadowski Synnott and Murase Kokomo almost missed their Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 victory ceremony.
Gasser won the snowboard women’s big air gold medal on Tuesday 15 February, ahead of silver medallist Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand and Japan’s Murase in third. It was the Austrian's second Olympic gold after her big air title at PyeongChang 2018.
As each of the final competitors finished their third jumps, they were mobbed by the majority of their rivals who couldn’t wait to celebrate with and congratulate them, despite finishing further down the standings.
Even if their opponents didn’t quite nail their final jump, the levels of excitement around the type of trick they tried and how hard they were pushing the sport, drove rapturous scenes.
In amongst all of the hugging and cheering there was little thought for the formalities that were due to follow the end of competition, with the medal winners to be celebrated at Big Air Shougang.
The ceremony did eventually take place and Gasser, Synnott and Murase were dutifully celebrated by the wider crowd too.
But the scenes at the women’s big air on Tuesday were reminiscent of the famous ones after Sadowski Synnott won New Zealand’s first ever Olympic Winter Games gold medal, when she blitzed the women’s slopestyle competition earlier in the Games.
"I feel like it’s so special that we’re all so close together," Gasser said of her fellow competitors on Tuesday.
"And I felt the girls were so happy for me. Without them I wouldn’t be where I am today as they inspire me everyday in training. I can’t believe this happened and I’m so happy with where the sport has gone this last couple of years."
It’s a sentiment echoed by Sadowski Synott.
"I’m pretty stoked to see Anna (Gasser) on the top of the podium - the cab dub 12 is an insane trick and she’s been pushing the progression for the past few years so I’m just so stoked for her," she said.
"It means everything to share the podium with Anna. It means so much to me. I shared the podium with her in PyeongChang as a 16-year-old and absolutely freaked out and I still feel like that today because I know how hard she works to get to where she is.
"Women’s snowboarding wouldn’t be where it is today without her so I’m super happy to be here with her."
With riders like those two, as well as young stars Murase (17), 20-year-old Iwabuchi Reira, 19-year-old Rong Ge from People’s Republic of China, 17-year-old Melissa Peperkamp of Netherlands, 20-year-old Jasmine Baird, 25-year-old Laurie Blouin, 21-year-old Tess Coady and 20-year-old Annika Morgan rounding out the top 10, the sport indeed looks to be as bright as ever.
Keep up with all the action in our Live Blog updates throughout Beijing 2022, here.