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Silver medalist Colby Stevenson of america poses in the course of the venue ceremony for the boys’s freestyle snowboarding large air finals of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photograph/Ashley Landis)
Norway’s Birk Ruud gained the boys’s freeski large air gold medal, powered by a 1,980-degree soar — 5 1/2 rotations — that no competitor might match. Colby Stevenson of america got here closest, incomes a silver medal.
It represents an inspirational comeback story for Stevenson, 24. In 2016, he had a near-fatal automotive accident in the midst of the night time in rural Idaho whereas coming back from a snowboarding occasion. He sustained 30 fractures to his cranium and spent three days in an induced coma. His gradual restoration delayed the prime of his profession, however Stevenson returned and have become one of many high freeskiers of the previous couple of seasons, a contender in each large air and slopestyle.
On Wednesday at Shougang Park, the place Eileen Gu had gained the ladies’s gold a day earlier in the identical occasion, Stevenson landed a 1,620 and an 1,800, two of the highest-scoring tips within the contest. However the mixture of scores left him simply wanting Ruud.
Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut gained bronze.