Australia’s snowboarders have a target to chase after the world’s best women put on an “insane” show in the Olympic big air final, with Japan’s Kokomo Murase taking the gold medal in Livigno.
Beijing slopestyle bronze medallist Tess Coady finished seventh while her debutante teammate Meila Stalker placed 10th — the Australians not in the same class as the top boarders at the Milan-Cortina Games.
Winning bronze in Beijing, Murase clinched her first Olympic gold with her final jump — a frontside 1440 – four rotations — with three off-axis spins to take her total to 179.00.
She took the lead from Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, with the Kiwi delivering two huge jumps under pressure for a 172.25 total after falling on her first attempt.
It was Sydney-born Sadowski-Synnott’s second silver in the event after finishing runner-up in Beijing, while courageous Korean teen Yu Seungeun won bronze.
An emotional Murase was swamped by her tight-knit rivals, who threw her in the air in celebration while fans of Sadowski-Synnott delivered an icy haka.
The three medallists were 12 points clear of the remainder of the field, with Coady saying they were a cut above.
“They’re insane, yeah, like the 14s and stuff, those girls are like amazing, they’re so good at riding big air,” 25-year-old Coady said.
“Doing 14s and stuff would be pretty scary on that jump, but they rode so well and yeah, it was really sick to see like the 14s and the 12s and stuff going down.”
Stalker, from the Sunshine Coast, failed to stick the backside double cork 1080 jump that she nailed in qualification but said it was awesome just to ride alongside the “best of the best” .
“Unfortunately I couldn’t put it down, but it was pretty stoked, it’s been an awesome experience, that’s for sure,” the 22-year-old said.
“Honestly, I was just a little bit of a fangirl tonight … it was pretty cool to watch.”
“I didn’t think I’d get this far tonight, so I’m pretty happy to be a part of it and just like really embrace watching everybody and yeah, seeing where I can get to.”
While Coady also finished ninth in Beijing, Australia has never had two women finish in the top 10, while 16-year-old Sydney schoolgirl Ally Hickman also showed plenty of promise in qualification.
Coady said her teammates were making huge progress, thanks to the airbag at the National Snowsport Training Centre (NSCT) in Jindabyne where they were able to use to practice tricks.
Athletes have been able to use the facility since the last Olympics.
“That’s one of the things that the airbag’s been like really good for and I guess you see it with like Meila and Ally and how they’ve progressed in the last four years,” the two-time Olympian said.
“Having that is so great, such a great tool for all of us to be able to learn those tricks and then have the confidence to bring them out to the competition you’ve seen here.”
Meanwhile, Australia’s ice dancers Holly Harris and Jason Chan opened their Olympic campaign on Monday night in Milan with the rhythm dance.
The pair scored 67.75 to place 18th with the top 20 countries moving through to the free dance.
French duo Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron were the runaway leaders, scoring 90.18.
