In 2016, at just 13, Kelly Sildaru walked off with her very first X Games gold, and the record as the youngest Winter X Games medalist ever. One year later, Estonia’s slopestyle star was back breaking more records in Aspen.
Already pocketing X Games big air silver on Saturday night, Sildaru put up a leaderboard-topping 92.33 in her first run in women’s ski slopestyle on Sunday, followed by Tess Ledeux of France and Giulia Tanno of Switzerland.
The solid scoring of the first round would not carry over into the second set, however, with the field unable to land a run to unseat the Estonian. Tess Ledeux hung on to win silver, while Norway’s Johanne Killi improved upon her first run to jump over Tanno to take the bronze.
Fellow Estonian and Cincinnati Bengals defensive end, Margus Hunt even showed his support for his fellow countrywoman on Twitter as he watched from home.
For Sildaru, she leaves Aspen with two medals – gold in women’s ski slopestyle and silver in big air. If that were not enough, she also became the first X Games athlete to win two golds before turning 15-years-old when she successfully defended her 2016 slopestyle title.
Next February, on Day 9 of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games, Sildaru will celebrate her 16th birthday, and if the X Games are any indication, the party should be super sweet.
Later on the mountain, three M’s lead the men’s X Games snowboard slopestyle final going into the final run. Norway’s Marcus Kleveland and two Canadians – favorite Mark McMorris and X Games vet Max Parrot. Despite heavy movement in the silver and bronze medal positions, no one could come close to the Norwegian on Sunday.
The 17-year-old Kleveland unseated Canada’s Mark McMorris, the defending X Games snowboard slopestyle champ and 2014 Olympic slopestyle bronze medalist, to win his first X Games gold. Looking for a storybook ending in his final run, McMorris landed his second jump clean, but switched the direction of his approach going into his final trick – likely invisible to the unknowing eye. The adjustment was enough of a misstep for the judges to deduct points, costing him a shot at gold.
Tyler Nicholson of Canada crashed the podium on his second run, knocking Norway’s Stale Sandbech down a peg to third, barely allowing Sandbech enough time to catch his breath after he had just landed in silver position on his own follow-up run.
Unfortunately for Sandbech, McMorris’ first run score was a couple points better, keeping the four-time X Games snowboard slopestyle gold medalist on the 2017 podium for bronze.
In addition to his slopestyle gold, Kleveland won silver under the lights on Friday night in the men’s snowboard big air event, landing an off-axis quadruple cork – a first in X Games history.
