Beijing 2022 snowboard wrap-up – top stories, moments and records

The Beijing 2022 snowboard competitions were chock-full of high flight in the big air, halfpipe and slopestyle events, and top speed and racing guile on the snowboard cross and parallel giant slalom courses.

Headlining the show in the much-anticipated halfpipe were American Chloe Kim on the women’s side and, on the men’s, Hirano Ayumu – who unleashed the first-ever Olympic triple cork as he took over the mantle once held by Shaun White, the 35-year-old defending and three-time champion who announced his retirement here at Beijing 2022.

In the slopestyle and big air events, Max Parrot and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (slopestyle) and Austria's Anna Gasser and Team China's Su Yiming (big air) were the top of the heap, while snowboard cross offered up a big boost for the older hopefuls out there. Team USA’s Lindsey Jacobellis, at the age of 36, won her first gold medal in the women’s event in her fifth Olympic Games – and then added another gold in the mixed team debut alongside fellow well-seasoned American Nick Baumgartner (40 and competing in his fourth Games).

The parallel giant slalom was a tight-run thing with Austrian Benjamin Karl winning the men’s competition and two-sport competitor Czech Ester Ledecka, who also races in the Alpine skiing events, eventually scooping the women’s golds.

Shaun White arrived at the Beijing Olympic Winter Games without having won a snowboard competition since he won the last gold medal in PyeongChang in 2018. Add to that the fact that he struggled to make the U.S. team and that he’s 35 years old – older by a decade than many of his competitors.

But such is the power of past performances – and his stature in the sport – that many still couldn’t conceive of him not winning a fourth Olympic gold