Hirano wins halfpipe gold with emphatic final run
Feb 11, 2022·Snowboard Park & Pipe
On of the most highly-anticipated events of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games took to the slopes of Genting Snow Park on Friday morning, where a titanic battle between Ayumu Hirano of Japan and Australia’s Scotty James saw Hirano stomp an near-perfect final run to vault over the Australian and into gold medal position in what will no-doubt go down as one of the most memorable competitions in snowboard history.
The various storylines were raging like wildfire ahead of Friday’s competition, from anticipation for the imminent final runs of competitive snowboarding’s greatest-of-all-time Shaun White (USA), to the onslaught of triple corks expected of several of the riders, to what the judges would be looking for and rewarding in an event that has gotten so technical and so progressive since the last Olympic Winter Games that even the most minor of bobbles could be the difference between glory and heartbreak.
Nowhere was this last point more apparent then in Ayumu Hirano’s second run, where, despite launching a triple-cork 1440 nearly six meters out of the pipe on his first hit and stomping the rest of his run, the winner of halfpipe silver at the previous two Games ended up sitting in second place behind James heading into the third and final run, earning a score of 91.75 to James’ 92.50.
Dropping just before Hirano, James had put down an exceptionally technical run, going big, spinning all four ways and locking in his grabs on every trick. Beginning with one of halfpipe snowboarding’s hardest tricks in the switch backside 1260 Weddle, James then went into a cab double cork 1440 melon - making for the first time ever that that combo had been completed back-to-back - followed by a frontside 900 tail grab, then a backside double cork 1260 melon before finishing things off with a frontside double cork 1440 tailgrab to land in the lead.
Not one to show much in the way of emotion at any point in his career, Hirano took in his second run second-place score stone-faced from the finish area.
However, it was clear from the drop-in of his third and final attempt that a fire in Hirano had been lit, and the Japanese rider proceeded to simply destroy the Beijing 2022 pipe in his gold medal-winning run.
Leading off once again with the triple cork 1440 truck driver - but bigger, better grabbed, and cleaner - Hirano then launched straight into an even bigger cab double cork 1440 Weddle, following that up with a frontside double cork 1260 indy, then a backside double cork 1260 Weddle, before putting exclamation mark on things with a massive frontside double cork 1440 tailgrab.
It was arguably the greatest halfpipe run of all time, put down by a rider who, at still just 23 years of age, has become the first snowboarder ever to win a podium in three-straight Olympic Winter Games halfpipe competitions, while also giving the snowboard-mad nation of Japan it’s first-ever snowboard Olympic gold.
"I did what I wanted to do right at the end," Hirano said after locking down the gold that had eluded him at the previous two Games, "I wasn't able to accept the second run's score, but I managed to express my anger well at the end. It hasn't sunk in yet but finally one of my childhood dreams has come true.
“I had a different feeling from usual,” Hirano went on, “I was ready to take the plunge and give all, and it was great to finish it off cleanly. Everyone was here at this final and they pushed me, providing me with great motivation.”
After failing to improve upon his second run with his final attempt, James couldn’t bring himself to watch Hirano’s winning run, as the Australian crouched behind the finish area wall with his hand to his mouth as the Japanese rider dropped in.
Still, while the gold that seemed destined to be his as he dominated competition for much of the intervening years since the last Games eluded him, James was gracious to his competitors and satisfied in the performance that stepped things up from his PyeongChang 2018 bronze to Beijing 2022 silver.
"I don't want people to think that I'm disappointed,” James said after the awards ceremony, “I'm absolutely and incredibly over the moon. I came here and gave it my best shot, and that's all I could have asked for.
"It's always funny to do these interviews after the moment,” James went on, “You don't have much time to process and my feeling right now is I'm just proud about what I did and of the team, proud to be out here representing Australia, and that's all we can do. I was really happy and proud on my second run. It's the most technical run I've ever done in my life and that was my vision today. I was super happy that put me on the podium.”
Third place and the bronze medal went to Switzerland’s Jan Scherrer, who dropped in fifth at Friday’s finals and had an agonizing wait to discover his fate, as five riders dropping after him had the potential to knock him from the podium.
As it turned out, whether it was nerves or fatigue or some other issues, pre-competition favourites like Japan’s Yuto Totsuka and Ruka Hirano were unable to put down clean runs at any point in the competition, and Scherrer’s second run would hold up to earn himself the bronze and the first Swiss halfpipe medal since Iouri Podladtchikov won gold at Sochi 2014.
Leading things off with a backside 900 tail grab, Scherrer then went frontside double cork 1440 indy, cab double cork 1080 Weddle, frontside double cork 1080 stalefish, and finally a switch double alley-oop backside rodeo indy to nosegrab - a trick that nobody else in the world has in their quiver.
“Training went really well and I knew today could be the day,” Scherrer said of his podium performance, “The plan was to do my alley-oop double rodeo 1080 in the first run, but I thought I would not have enough space, so I did a 540. The second run went really well. Same start, but then I went for it - first time this year, and landed my trick for the first time in a competition.
“To me, it’s the greatest way I could have imagined how I would win a medal, like, with my own trick, with my own way. It worked out, and it just feels so unreal right now.”
We’ll have more on this tomorrow, but finally we’ll get back to Shaun White, who finished just 2.25 points back of Scherrer in fourth place in his fifth and final Olympic appearance.
The greatest competitive freestyle snowboarder of all time, White leaves behind a legacy that will endure as long as there are halfpipes in the world and snowboarders to ride them.
Despite falling short of his podium goal this time around, White said that he walks away from competition satisfied.
"Snowboarding, thank you. It's been the love of my life...It's been a journey. I can't wait to see where this sport goes. I’m truly thankful to be here and still competing and even getting fourth, I'm proud of it. The future for me is so exciting. There's so much I want to do in my life. So much to do, so much to live for, this is just the beginning."
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