CGTN
Su Yiming of Team China won the silver medal in the men’s snowboard slopestyle by scoring 88.70 points at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, north China’s Hebei Province, on Monday.
While Max Parrot of Team Canada clinched the gold with 90.96 points in his second run, his teammate Mark McMorris won the bronze with 88.53 points.
Su became the first Asian snowboard medalist in Winter Olympic history. Compared with the other athletes, Su’s biggest advantage was his consistent performance on Monday. His first, second and third run scores were 78.38, 88.70 and 66.58 points, respectively. The gap between the highest and lowest of his was 22.12.
Only McMorris did it better than Su on this front, but McMorris’ best performance happened in the third run, a bit late for him to compete for the title. Su managed to finish an 1800 trick in his second run. He said it’s the first time for him to do so in a formal contest. Then he did it again in Run 3.
“This is the first time for me to complete a 1800,” Su said. “I’m so glad to do so and get such a great record.” He added that what made him the happiest was that he could compete at home and had so many people support him.
Su used to say that he grew up watching the performance of McMorris. Barely 11 days away from his 18th birthday, Su was standing next to the Canadian star snowboarder on the Winter Olympic podium.
“I was able to compete along with my childhood hero and stand on the podium. It’s the most special moment of my life and means so much to me,” Su said.
Su will participate in the men’s snowboard big air qualification at Big Air Shougang in Beijing on February 14.
