Olympics
Women’s snowboard slopestyle wrapped up for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics with the finals round on Wednesday, February 18. The final, held in Livigno, Italy, saw the top twelve riders from qualifying battle it out for spots on the Olympic podium. Each rider had three runs, with their best run’s score counting for placement.
The story of the event was the snow conditions, as well as questions about judging. Livigno received multiple inches of snow in the days leading up to the final, even forcing the qualifying round to be moved up a day to compete before the snowstorm. The new snowfall made the course run slowly for the finals, with riders struggling to go fast enough for big tricks. Where riders are typically doing big spins and flips, they were forced to perform smaller tricks like 360s and 720s.
This change in tricks led to some controversy over the event’s judging. As riders were forced to go smaller with their tricks, judges were forced to make decisions about scores that surprised spectators. The controversy largely stemmed from two runs, in which two 720s (two rotations) were scored larger than a triple cork 1260 (three and a half rotations) and a double cork 1080 (three rotations). This caused some to react on social media, the most popular of which was Todd Richards, who called the event live.
Judges take into account multiple elements of each run, including degree of difficulty, composition, and execution.
Japan’s Mari Fukada would end up with the gold medal after putting down a run that scored an 87.83. Fukada finished her runs off with a backside 720 and a frontside 720, which was enough for the gold. This is the 19-year-old’s first Olympic medal in her first appearance in the games, an impressive feat for an Olympic rookie.
New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synott, who took silver, is far from a rookie. Her silver medal in slopestyle is her fifth Olympic medal, after winning a medal in each of the three Olympics she has participated in. With her silver in slopestyle in 2026, Sadowski-Synott became the most decorated snowboarder in Olympic history, holding a gold medal from Beijing 2022, three silver medals, and a bronze.
Japan’s Kokomo Murase took the bronze medal, earning her second piece of hardware for the Milano-Cortina games. Murase took gold in big air during the first week of competition and continued her quality riding into slopestyle, where she would end up on the podium for the second time.
Team USA saw two riders drop into the slopestyle course for the finals. 16-year-olds Lily Dhawornvej and Jessica Perlmutter, both in their Olympic debuts, qualified for the finals. They were unable to get on the podium, but the future of women’s slopestyle snowboarding in America is in good hands.
Women’s slopestyle concludes snowboarding events for these 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. The best riders will return to the Olympic stage in 2030 in the French Alps for a new chance at making history.
