Snowboarding at the 2022 Winter Olympics featured Shaun White's last ride, juxtaposed with Ayumu Hirano landing the first two clean-run triple corks in history; Chloe Kim returning with new priorities to defend her title; and Lindsey Jacobellis slaying a demon from the past by winning not one but two Olympic golds.

Austria won gold in an event from each sub-discipline grouping of the sport – big air, snowboard cross and parallel giant slalom – while Jacobellis and Kim notched three total for the United States, as the two nations tied for the top spot with an additional silver apiece.

Jacobellis was the only athlete to bring home two titles, grabbing gold in both the individual and mixed team snowboard cross events. Young stars Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Su Yiming each earned a different variation of gold and silver in slopestyle and big air.

Snowboarding Medal Tables

Medals by Nation
Rank Nation Medals
1 Austria πŸ₯‡πŸ₯‡πŸ₯‡πŸ₯ˆ
  United States πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ πŸ₯‡πŸ₯‡πŸ₯‡πŸ₯ˆ
3 Canada πŸ₯‡πŸ₯ˆπŸ₯‰πŸ₯‰πŸ₯‰πŸ₯‰
4 China πŸ₯‡πŸ₯ˆ
  New Zealand πŸ₯‡πŸ₯ˆ
6 Japan πŸ₯‡πŸ₯‰πŸ₯‰
7 Czech Republic πŸ₯‡
8 Australia πŸ₯ˆπŸ₯‰
  Italy πŸ₯ˆπŸ₯‰
  Slovenia πŸ₯ˆπŸ₯‰
11 Spain πŸ₯ˆπŸ₯‰
  France πŸ₯ˆ
  Norway πŸ₯ˆ
14 ROC πŸ₯‰
  Switzerland πŸ₯‰

 

Multi-Medalist Athletes
Rank Athlete Medals
1 Lindsey Jacobellis (USA) πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ πŸ₯‡ BXT, πŸ₯‡ SBX
2 Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL) πŸ₯‡ SS, πŸ₯ˆ BA
  Su Yiming (CHN) πŸ₯‡ BA, πŸ₯ˆ SS
4 Max Parrot (CAN) πŸ₯‡ SS, πŸ₯‰ BA
5 Eliot Grondin (CAN) πŸ₯ˆ SBX, πŸ₯‰ BXT
  Omar Visintin (ITA) πŸ₯ˆ BXT, πŸ₯‰ SBX
7 Meryeta O'Dine (CAN) πŸ₯‰ BXT, πŸ₯‰ SBX

Shaun White calls it a career and Ayumu Hirano assumes throne

After winning gold No. 3 in PyeongChang, Shaun White took more than three years off from competition. Despite being the defending champion, a fifth Olympics and fourth title would be difficult tasks for the aging rider, as progression in the sport he led for so long had finally begun to catch up with its master.

The Californian finally returned last March for the Aspen Grand Prix and finished fourth, then struggled early this season, placing eighth at the Copper Grand Prix and seventh at Dew Tour, after which he told TODAY that the 2022 Olympics would likely be his "last run."

Entering the new year, White contracted COVID-19 and subsequently dropped out of the Mammoth Grand Prix, the final qualifying event of the selection period. Vying for a coaches' pick, he flew to Switzerland's Laax Open and landed his first podium finish since the 2018 Games in third to essentially seal the fifth berth.

At 35, White became the oldest-ever Olympic men's halfpipe competitor upon dropping in for his first qualifying run at the 2022 Winter Games. But also, for the first time ever, he didn't enter the Games as one of the favorites to win gold.

The ensuing performance was certainly gold-worthy, though, as White put down a clinching run in classic form. White first under-rotated a signature double McTwist 1260 during his opener, then came back to triumphantly stomp the trick in Run 2 and make it into his fifth Olympic final.

In the final, the sport's elder statesman laid down a strong second run, cleaning up a trick that gave him trouble earlier to score an 85.00. But Jan Scherrer's 87.25 ultimately held for bronze, dealing White an identical result to his finish in Sochi eight years prior, just 2.25 shy.

Japan's Ayumu Hirano, silver medalist at the last two Olympics, finally got his gold by stomping historic triple corks on each of his three runs' first hits, two of which came on clean runs. He scored a 96.00 on his last run to seal the victory.

The triple cork had been the talk of snowboarding for most of the season, with many speculating it would take the trick to win gold. Ayumu was the only rider who had landed the trick in a competition, albeit on a run in which he later fell.

Judges dealt Ayumu a tough break on Run 2, forcing him to go massive on his final run β€” which he did, recording a 96.00 with a pair of 1440s and a pair of 1260s, in addition to the triple cork.

Chloe Kim returns from hiatus to defend halfpipe gold

Chloe Kim entered the 2018 PyeongChang final as the overwhelming favorite at just 17 years old, and despite the massive pressure and expectations to deliver seemed relatively unfazed, tweeting midway through the contest about breakfast before laying down back-to-back 1080s on a 98.25 final-run victory lap.

But a flood of praise and critique followed, so much so that Kim began to dislike her biggest passion. Not long after breaking her ankle at the 2019 U.S. Open, she took a break from snowboarding competition β€” one that ultimately lasted 22 months.

The Los Angeles native spent March 2019 to January 2021 away from the sport, healing her ankle, attending her freshman year of college at Princeton University and meeting new friends outside the slopes.

"I really liked just doing something else for a little bit. I’ve been snowboarding competitively since I was like 12," Kim told NBC last January. "I think after the Olympics, I kind of started to realize that I was lacking a lot of experience outside of snowboarding … I didn’t want to regret not doing certain things."

Kim returned with a renewed love for her sport and proceeded to win the Laax Open, a fifth X Games Aspen title, a second straight world title and the Aspen Grand Prix, then continued her streak this season at Dew Tour and Laax.

"I started to resent [snowboarding] … and I was like, I need to miss it. And if I miss it, I'll go back, and if I don't miss it, I won't go back," she told NBC last September. "[But] I missed it. I missed it a lot … I just had the same emotions I did when I was 14, excited to get out there, excited to try new things, and excited to push myself."

At the 2022 Games, the defending gold medalist put down a low-gear run to lead halfpipe qualifying and advance to the final. The now 21-year-old reached nearly 13 feet in amplitude on her first run to score an 87.75, then had an uncharacteristic fall on Run 2 attempting a switch backside 720, but her first score held up.

"I was really nervous my first run 'cause we're at the Olympics, but I'm so happy I put one down," Kim said. "I just wanted to mess around on my second run, try something I've never really done before, so I'm surprised I made it that far, but yeah, I'm stoked."

In the final, Kim successfully defended her gold to become the Olympic event's first-ever repeat champion and multi-title winner. Emotional while awaiting her score of 94.00, she revealed to the camera she'd just had the worst practice of her life.

"I actually had a really tough practice, so it was a lot of mental challenges for me this morning," Kim said after the competition. "I'm just really proud of myself for going out there and trying despite all the mental battles I had this morning."

On her second and final runs, the Californian attempted to throw down a competition-first cab 1260 β€” a trick with three and a half rotations performed while riding switch β€” but missed both tries on the third hit. Nevertheless, she remained proud of her performance.

"I am in a much better headspace and I think I had a better idea of what to expect," Kim said. "I am so eager to see my loved ones, my family, my dog, my boyfriend, so I think that will keep me happy and I'm just gonna feel all the feelings and just be proud of myself."

Kim has pushed the event's progression ever since taking 2014 X Games silver at 14, too young at the time for Sochi. Her two golds follow those won by German Nicola Thost at Nagano 1998; Americans Kelly Clark at Salt Lake 2002 and Hannah Teter at Torino 2006; Aussie Torah Bright at Vancouver 2010; and American Kaitlyn Farrington at Sochi 2014.

Lindsey Jacobellis finally finds gold – then does it again

Snowboard cross made its first Winter Olympics appearance in 2006. A young American named Lindsey Jacobellis entered Torino as the heavy favorite, having won the last three X Games titles.

In the big final, the 20-year-old broke away with a strong lead over Tanja Frieden but attempted a method grab on the penultimate jump and messed up her landing. Frieden passed for gold, while Jacobellis managed to get up and over the finish line for silver.

Over the next 16 years, Jacobellis continually proved herself on the world stage, racking up five individual world titles and 10 individual X Games wins. She tallied an astonishing 52 podiums and 30 wins in individual snowboard cross alone on the World Cup tour.

But Olympic gold remained for some reason unattainable for the Connecticut-born Vermonter. After her silver in 2006, she finished fifth at the 2010 Vancouver Games, seventh at Sochi 2014 and just off the podium in fourth at the 2018 PyeongChang Games.

This season, Jacobellis placed third in back-to-back World Cup competitions in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, which made her a solid medal contender for the 2022 Games. A stacked field, though, led many to believe she wasn't a favorite to win gold, thus entering as a slight underdog.

The 35-year-old began her fifth Olympics by posting the No. 5 time of the seeding round. Then she came alive, winning her eighth-final, quarterfinal and semifinal to make it into the big final, where she battled defending champion Michela Moioli to take the victory triumphantly.

At the time, Jacobellis assumed the title of snowboarding's oldest Olympic medalist; and became only the second U.S. athlete to secure two Winter Games medals at least 16 years apart.

"They can keep talking about [Torino] all they want because it really shaped me into the individual that I am," Jacobellis said. "[It] kept me hungry and really helped me keep fighting in the sport."

Less than three days later, she was back on the SBX course for the Winter Games debut of mixed team snowboard cross, paired with fellow veteran Nick Baumgartner, who also had high hopes to win individually like Jacobellis but was ousted early in the bracket at the hands of his own teammate.

In falling snow and freezing temperatures, Baumgartner beat out Eiliot Grondin in the men's section of the big final, and Jacobellis followed up with another win over Moioli, subtly grabbing her board on the final jump in a full-circle ode to the infamous Torino moment that cost her a title nearly two decades ago.

"We came in hot today, we're really excited about it," Jacobellis said. "To be able to take this with someone I’ve been on the team with for over a decade – close to two decades now with Baum – it’s incredible to accomplish this together."

Baumgartner, 40, took over Jacobellis' title as the oldest Olympic snowboarding medalist, while Jacobellis added her second medal of the week despite taking nearly two decades to find another the first time.

Park and Pipe Snowboarding

Women's Slopestyle

(Qualifying / Final)

πŸ₯‡ Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL)

πŸ₯ˆ Julia Marino (USA) πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

πŸ₯‰ Tess Coady (AUS)

New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott ascended the throne, knocking off two-time defending gold medalist Jamie Anderson of the U.S., who finished ninth. Anderson's teammate Julia Marino captured silver for Team USA's first medal of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Sadowski-Synnott, 20, hit a huge backside 1080 on the final jump of her last run to clinch the victory. The two-time world champion and 2018 Olympic big air bronze medalist claimed New Zealand's first-ever gold at the Winter Games. Connecticut native Marino, 11th in 2018, put together the run of her career on Run 2 by landing a perfect cab double underflip 900 off "The Matrix" and ending with a frontside double cork 1080 on the last hit.

RECAP: Sadowski-Synnott unseats Anderson in slopestyle, USA's Marino grabs silver

Men's Slopestyle

(Qualifying / Final)

πŸ₯‡ Max Parrot (CAN)

πŸ₯ˆ Su Yiming (CHN)

πŸ₯‰ Mark McMorris (CAN)

Four years after finishing runner-up at the 2018 PyeongChang Games and subsequently being diagnosed with cancer, Canadian snowboarder Max Parrot executed a clean, sound run in the final and captured Olympic gold. The Quebecois flaunted his technical skills in the rail section of Run 2, then hit a cab 1620, backside 1440 and frontside 1620 on the bottom jumps to record the competition's only score exceeding 90 points. Parrot went through 12 rounds of chemotherapy for Hodgkin’s lymphoma and announced he was cancer-free in July 2019. Defending gold medalist Red Gerard finished just off the podium in fourth, ending a streak in which the U.S. had earned a medal in every slopestyle event.

RECAP: Parrot's persistence pays off with slopestyle gold; USA's Gerard misses podium

Women's Halfpipe

(Qualifying / Final)

πŸ₯‡ Chloe Kim (USA) πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έcc

πŸ₯ˆ Queralt Castellet (ESP)

πŸ₯‰ Sena Tomita (JPN)

Rejuvenated after taking time off between Olympics, Chloe Kim of the U.S. successfully defended her halfpipe gold to become the Olympic event's first-ever repeat champion and multi-title winner. Kim opened up her first run with a huge method air, after which she nailed a frontside 1080, a cab 900, a switch backside 540 and a cab 1080. Emotional while awaiting her score of 94.00, Kim revealed to the camera she'd just had the worst practice of her life. Queralt Castellet, 32, seized silver, earning Spain its best Winter Games finish since 1972. Kim's gold gave the U.S. its fifth title in the event's seven-competition history, as well as the 11th of the 21 overall medals.

RECAP: Chloe Kim claims second straight Olympic halfpipe gold

Men's Halfpipe

(Qualifying / Final)

πŸ₯‡ Ayumu Hirano (JPN)

πŸ₯ˆ Scotty James (AUS)

πŸ₯‰ Jan Scherrer (SUI)

U.S. snowboarding legend Shaun White ended his career with a fourth-place finish, just missing the podium at his fifth Games. The sport's elder statesman laid down a strong second run in the final, cleaning up a trick that had given him trouble to score an 85.00. Switzerland's Jan Scherrer's 87.25 ultimately held for bronze, dealing White an identical result to his finish in Sochi eight years prior, just 2.25 shy. Sochi and PyeongChang silver medalist Ayumu Hirano of Japan finally won gold, landing historic triple corks on all three of his runs and scoring a massive 96.00 on Run 3. His younger brother Kaishu Hirano reached nearly 25 feet above the halfpipe lid on one of his hits for a new world record.

RECAP: Shaun White winds up 4th at final Olympics, closing out extraordinary career

Women's Big Air

(Qualifying / Final)

πŸ₯‡ Anna Gasser (AUT)

πŸ₯ˆ Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL)

πŸ₯‰ Kokomo Murase (JPN)

Austria's Anna Gasser defended her Olympic title after an epic duel with slopestyle gold medalist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, stomping three clean tricks, including a cab double cork 1260 on her final attempt, to claim the win. The 30-year-old became the third snowboarder at the 2022 Games to defend a title after Chloe Kim in women's halfpipe and Ester Ledecka in women's parallel giant slalom. Sadowski-Synnott, who fell on her own 1260 attempt, improved on her 2018 Olympic big air bronze with silver, completing a career medal trifecta, while Japan's Kokomo Murase earned bronze at just 17 years old. Reigning 2018 silver medalist Jamie Anderson of the U.S. didn't advance out of qualifying.

RECAP: Anna Gasser defends Olympic gold in women's snowboard big air

Men's Big Air

(Qualifying / Final)

πŸ₯‡ Su Yiming (CHN)

πŸ₯ˆ Mons Roisland (NOR)

πŸ₯‰ Max Parrot (CAN)

Days shy of his 18th birthday, Su Yiming of China followed up on a silver in slopestyle by earning another medal, landing a pair of 1800s on his first two runs of the final to strike gold. The first Chinese snowboarder to win a Winter Games title stomped a frontside 1800 tailgrab on his first run for a score of 89.50, then went absolutely enormous on Run 2 with a backside triple cork 1800 for a 93.00. His combined winning total of 182.50 was nearly 11 points higher than the next-closest competitor. Su's gold gave China its sixth of the Games, surpassing five in Vancouver for its best-ever title count at a single Winter Olympics. Parrot took bronze for his third career medal.

RECAP: China's Su Yiming, 17, stomps two 1800s for snowboard big air gold

Snowboard Cross

Women's Snowboard Cross

(Qualifying / Finals)

πŸ₯‡ Lindsey Jacobellis (USA) πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

πŸ₯ˆ Chloe Trespeuch (FRA)

πŸ₯‰ Meryeta O'Dine (CAN)

Thirty-six-year-old Lindsey Jacobellis dug deep at her fifth Winter Games to capture the elusive title she'd been pursuing for nearly two decades and simultaneously claim Team USA's first gold of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Becoming, at the time, snowboarding's oldest Olympic medalist – replacing men's PGS winner Benjamin Karl, also 36 but younger in days – Jacobellis defeated 2014 bronze medalist Chloe Trespeuch of France and two other riders in the big final to finally make amends with her debut 2006 Games mishap, which infamously cost her the victory. The gold also made her the oldest American woman to win a Winter Olympic medal of any color in any sport.

RECAP: Lindsey Jacobellis finds redemption at 36 with gold, Team USA's first of 2022 Games

Men's Snowboard Cross

(Qualifying / Finals)

πŸ₯‡ Alessandro Haemmerle (AUT)

πŸ₯ˆ Eliot Grondin (CAN)

πŸ₯‰ Omar Visintin (ITA)

Austria's Alessandro Haemmerle beat Canada's Eliot Grondin by the nose length of his board in an electrifying big-final finish. Haemmerle, a three-time reigning overall World Cup winner, stuck behind the 20-year-old Grondin for the first half of the race before overtaking him on the inside of a turn. The two battled it out the rest of the way, and Haemmerle's board crossed the finish line first for the victory. American Jake Vedder reached the semifinals but didn't advance, finishing sixth overall. Earlier in the quarterfinals, he knocked out teammate and medal contender Nick Baumgartner, who at 40 could've become the oldest snowboarder to reach an Olympic podium.

RECAP: Haemmerle edges Grondin for SBX gold in photo finish

Mixed Team Snowboard Cross

(Finals)

πŸ₯‡ USA (Baumgartner/Jacobellis) πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

πŸ₯ˆ ITA (Visintin/Moioli)

πŸ₯‰ CAN (Grondin/O'Dine)

Less than three days after capturing individual gold, five-time U.S. Olympian Lindsey Jacobellis claimed another with teammate Nick Baumgartner in the Winter Games debut of mixed team snowboard cross. The two American veterans, 36 and 40, became the oldest medalists in Olympic snowboarding history. In falling snow and temperatures in the teens, Baumgartner beat out Canadian Eiliot Grondin in the men's section of the big final, and Jacobellis followed up with a triumphant victory over Italy's Michela Moioli, subtly grabbing her board on the final jump in a full-circle ode to the infamous Torino moment that cost her a title nearly two decades ago.

RECAP: Jacobellis grabs gold No. 2 with Baumgartner in mixed team snowboard cross

Alpine Snowboarding

Women's Parallel Giant Slalom

(Qualifying / Finals)

πŸ₯‡ Ester Ledecka (CZE)

πŸ₯ˆ Daniela Ulbing (AUT)

πŸ₯‰ Gloria Kotnik (SLO)

Two-sport athlete Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic defended her 2018 Olympic gold, defeating Austrian Daniela Ulbing in the big final to clinch the title. Ulbing made a mistake near the bottom of the course, allowing Ledecka to cruise home for the victory. Afterward, Ledecka, the first woman to win back-to-back golds in PGS, revealed she was so focused she wasn't aware it was the competition's final race. The gold was Ledecka's third Olympic title of her career, having won a surprise gold in Alpine super-G a week before her PGS win in PyeongChang. Later on at the 2022 Games' Alpine events, she placed fifth in super-G and fourth in combined. No Americans competed.

RECAP: Czech Ester Ledecka repeats gold in snowboarding parallel giant slalom

Men's Parallel Giant Slalom

(Qualifying / Finals)

πŸ₯‡ Benjamin Karl (AUT)

πŸ₯ˆ Tim Mastnak (SLO)

πŸ₯‰ Vic Wild (ROC)

Austria's Benjamin Karl bested 2019 world runner-up Tim Mastnak of Slovenia to claim gold and complete an Olympic medal color trifecta. The 2011 and 2013 world PGS titlist won silver in Vancouver then bronze in Sochi's parallel slalom, an event that's no longer an Olympic event and in which Karl is the reigning world champion. Sochi Olympic double-gold medalist Vic Wild of the ROC added an unexpected bronze to his collection. The 35-year-old native of White Salmon, Washington, chose to represent Russia ahead of the 2014 Games. Americans Cody Winters and Robby Burns finished a respective 29th and 31st overall.

RECAP: Benjamin Karl wins men's PGS for third Olympic medal

NBC Olympics Research contributed