Jamie Anderson competes in women's snowboard slopestyle at Dew Tour on Dec. 13, 2017 in Breckenridge, Colo.
Olympian Jamie Anderson went into Saturday’s big air competition with 14 X Games medals, all of them in slopestyle snowboarding, including the gold she won on Friday in Aspen, Colorado.
Now, just in time for big air to make its Olympic debut in PyeongChang next month, Anderson has her first medal in that event as well. With a bronze medal, she is now the winningest woman in X Games history with 15 medals. U.S. teammate Kelly Clark is second with 14.
During big air competition riders have to spin both to the left and the right during a 20-minute jam session, with their two best scores combining for a total. Anderson and 16-year-old rookie X Games rookie Reira Iwabuchi of Japan swapped places several times at the top of the standings until Austria’s Anna Gasser, always a force to be reckoned with in big air, threw down a Cab 1080 double cork and surged to a commanding lead.
Gasser’s 86.00 points gave her the gold medal, her first at the X Games, while Iwabuchi finished second and Anderson third, both with 71.00 points. In her previous three big air competitions at the X Games, Anderson finished in fourth place once and sixth place twice.
Anderson is the reigning Olympic slopestyle champion and will be returning to the 2018 Winter Games to not only defend that title but also go for a second medal in big air.
Hailey Langland, who won the event last year and will be representing the U.S. in PyeongChang, did not compete because of bruised heels suffered in practice for Friday’s slopestyle final.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
