X Games Norway 2018 Dominate The Ski And Snowboard Big Air Competitions

The afternoon kicked off with Women’s Ski Big Air, where Swedish skier Jennie-Lee Burmansson earned gold in her X Games debut. The youngest rider in the field at just 15 years old, Burmansson earned a 77.66 with a switch leftside 720 with a double grab, tail and safety in her third run and a switch rightside 720 tailgrab in her first. Swiss skier Guilia Tanno earned silver and Norwegian Tiril Sjåstad Christiansen took bronze in her first competition since her X Games Oslo 2016 gold medal.

Japanese rider Kokomo Murase made history in the Women’s Snowboard Big Air final, becoming the first woman to land a backside double cork 1260 mute. She also wrote herself into the history books as the youngest medalist in X Games winter event history at just 13 years old. The X Games rookie stunned in her debut, landing a double cork 1260 and double cork 1080. American Julia Marino took silver and Finnish rider Enni Rukajarvi earned bronze.

Birk Ruud showed the hometown crowd a gold medal performance, winning his first X Games medal. The Norwegian landed a leftside triple cork 1620 mute grab in his second run and a switch leftside double cork 1440 tail grab on his final run for an overall score of 85.33. Swedish skier Henrik Harlaut earned his tenth X Games medal with silver, tying Jon Olsson for second-most ski medals in X Games history. Norwegian Øystein Braaten won his first Big Air medal with a bronze. His sixth X Games medal ties him with Andreas Hatveit for most medals among Norwegian athletes.

The evening concluded with the Men’s Snowboard Big Air competition where newcomer Takeru Otsuka shocked the crowd to win his first X Games medal. Earning his X Games Norway invite by winning the World Rookie Tour Slopestyle finals in April, Otsuka then earned his spot in the Big Air finals by qualifying first in the Eliminations earlier today. In the final, his frontside triple cork 1440 and cab triple cork 1440 truck driver earned him a gold at 91.00.  The youngest rider in the field, he also became the youngest Men’s Snowboard Big Air medalist in X Games history.  Norwegian favorite Marcus Kleveland earned silver and American Chris Corning took third – his first X Games medal.