Ok, we exagerrate, they didn’t win all of them, but they sure dominated the Aspen X Games this weekend with two gold, a silver and two bronze. Not to mention Alice Robinson who won her own gold in the FIS World Cup Giant Slalom in the same week. Just saying.
Whatever they’re putting in the water down Wānaka way, we want some. Not Aussie Scotty James, though, the water in Warrandyte built him strong enough to win 10 X Games Medals including seven gold including a four-peat. Also, just saying.
But, we digress.
Where to start with the Kiwis? Should we mention 20 year old Luca Harrington, who wasn’t even scheduled to compete. He was an official “alternate” and got the start list call up the night before the men’s ski slopestyle. Then, in his X Games debut he goes and takes GOLD.
As the top qualifier he was the last to drop for each of the two finals runs, but turns out he didn’t even need his second run to win. Harrington put down a flawless first run, which included his right double corked 900 bring back Japan grab and switch right triple corked 1620 with an esco grab (winning combo from the Klagenfurt Big Air World Cup earlier this month) on the last two jumps.
Then he came back and took silver in the ski big air. He was an original alternate for this event too. In what has become trademark approach for Harrington, he came out swinging in the playoffs and put down a triple corked 1980 with a tweaked tail grab, going huge and punching his ticket to the finals with ease.
Harrington put down a repeat triple corked 1980 and was sitting in bronze medal position after the first of two finals runs. Despite sitting in medal position, Harrington upped the ante and added an extra 180 degrees of rotation, landing his first ever triple corked 2160 tail grab (six full rotations). He was rewarded a huge score of 97.00 by the judges, just one point behind the leader.
Another X Games rookie, Rocco Jamieson, 18 years old, scored himself a bronze medal in snowboard big air, a competition in which the world saw the first 2160 (six full times around) rotation landed three times by two different athletes.
In the finals Hiroto Ogiwara of Japan landed a 2340 mute grab for the first time in history, an incredible six and half full rotations. Jamieson held his own, and third place, to take home the bronze.
Fellow Kiwi, and queen of the snowboard, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott added her 10th X Games medal to her collection, taking home the bronze in the Women’s Snowboard Big Air.
Then she went and took gold in the women’s snowboard slopestyle, landing the world’s first triple cork in a women’s slopestyle competition. She’s now won 11 X Games Medals, including six gold.
