Blouin and McMorris sweep Aspen 2021 big air golds for Canada
Mar 17, 2021·Snowboard Park & Pipe
After the freeskiers opened things up on Tuesday at the final day of competition for the Aspen 2021 FIS Snowboard & Freeski World Championships, the snowboarders shut it down, with an incredible big air competition that saw Canada sweep the top of the podium on the strength of standout, gold-medal performances from Laurie Blouin and Mark McMorris.
Blouin edges Sadowski-Synnott with final run magic
No stranger to make-or-break situations, Blouin came into Aspen 2021 already owning slopestyle gold from the Sierra Nevada 2017 World Championships, slopestyle silver from the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, as well as 2019 X Games big air gold. On Tuesday in Aspen her imperviousness to pressure was once again on display as she used her final hit of the afternoon to squeak her way into top spot.
After stomping her first-run frontside double cork 1080 weddle-to-tail grab for a score of 88.00 and then washing out on her second attempt, Blouin came into the third and final run sitting in third behind Tess Coady (AUS) and leader and Aspen 2021 gold medallist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL). While a re-ordering of the rankings happening after Anna Gasser (AUT) and Miyabi Onitsuka (JPN) both landed their final runs, Blouin dropped third-to-last and put down a switch frontside 1080 weddle to jump into the lead with a combined score of 177.75, putting herself ahead of Sadowski-Synnott’s 176.75 score by just a single point.
With an unbelievably stylish frontside double cork 1080 melon and a backside double 1080 mute already to her credit to have her in first before Blouin’s final effort, Sadowski-Synnott had the last drop of the day. And though she, too, seems to thrive in the most intense situations - such as when she won the Aspen 2021 slopestyle with her final run of the competition on Friday - in Tuesday’s big air she faltered with her final hit, going too big and crumbling in her landing to hand the win the Blouin.
“I’m so proud,” Blouin said just after realizing she would be claiming the second World Championships gold of her career, “I mean, this trick (the switch frontside double 1080) is not fully consistent for me. I still have to do a little bit of work, but just sending it on the last run…I’m still shaking. The level of competition today was insane. I mean, everyone just rode so well. It’s pretty crazy, girls are starting to do twelves, so I’m definitely going to have to work on my twelve now.”
Sadowski-Synnott would have to settle for the silver medal which - along with her slopestyle gold from last week here in Aspen and the Utah 2019 competition two years ago, and her slopestyle silver from the Sierra Nevada 2017 World Championships, - gives her already four career World Championships medals to tie her with the likes of Scotty James (AUS), Doraine Vidal (FRA) and Roope Tonteri (FIN) for second all-time amongst Park & Pipe snowboarders - all by the age of 20 years old.
Meanwhile, Onitsuka’s score of 174.75 would give her the bronze, making for three career World Championships medals and her second major podium of the year along with X Games silver her in Aspen six weeks ago.
McMorris puts weird year behind him to win first World Champs gold
One of - if not the - most dominant competition riders in the history of snowboarding on the men’s side of things, Mark McMorris somehow came into Aspen 2021 without a World Championships gold medal to his name, while riding a string of bad luck in the 2020/21 season that included a disappointing showing at the World Cup season opener in Kreischberg, followed by a positive covid test that forced him to withdraw from the Laax Open and the X Games.
While McMorris was able to get back to his winning ways with a victory at the Natural Selection backcountry freestyle competition a few weeks ago, the 27 year-old has admittedly been feeling the pressure as he looks to lock down a spot representing Canada for the third time at the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
So it was clear from Sunday’s qualifications through to the his two top scoring runs in Tuesday’s finals that McMorris was a man on a mission in the big air competition, landing the highest scoring trick of qualies with a switch backside 1620 melon and then leading off finals with an essentially identical version of the same trick on Tuesday to put himself in the driver’s seat early on with a score of 92.75.
McMorris then followed his switch backside 16 with a regular backside 1620 weddle grab that was once again huge, smooth, and stomped to near-perfection, putting him into a strong lead with a combined score of 179.25.
Run three, however, saw all kinds of action - some good, and some unfortunate - and movement all around the leader’s board.
The good? No doubt leading that category was Friday’s slopestyle World Champion Marcus Kleveland (NOR), who recovered from a first-run fall and a just-ok second run score of 78.50 to put down the absolute best trick of the competition on run three, when he stomped an otherworldly cab 1800 for a score of 97.75 to launch himself all the way up into second place.
More good? McMorris’s countryman Max Parrot, who recalibrated after washing out on his own cab 1800 attempt in run two, reined things back to a cab triple 1620, stomped that, and moved his way up into second place behind McMorris while dropping Kleveland back to third.
The unfortunate? Japan’s Ruki Tobita, dropping in second-to-last with a very real chance to leapfrog Kleveland, Parrot, and even McMorris into top spot, spinning a massive frontside 1800 melon, essentially stomping it, but then getting carried away by his momentum and spilling over his front edge to penguin slide into the finish area and hand the gold to McMorris. It was the first time Tobita had ever attempted the trick, and he was oh-so-close to putting it down and possibly swiping the gold from under McMorris’s nose.
With Tobita’s near-miss happening just before his final drop, McMorris was then granted a victory lap, where he went a little too big looking for a classic method to finish things off, nearly falling on a straight air after stomping his two incredibly technical scoring tricks and leading to laughs all around in the finish area.
“It’s dream-come-true type stuff, for sure,” McMorris said, still smiling from the finish area after the washout on the method, “I had a tough go in the slopestyle, so then I was just waiting and waiting and waiting for big air to start, and then qualifying in first, and I knew I had a shot to do well, and the weather provided for us. I’m just honoured to be a part of this and stand on top of the podium. It’s not an easy podium to stand on top of these days. The big air event has just really continually progressed to new heights and I’m stoked to be a part of it. It’s an honour to stand beside Laurie and I’m really proud of her. Everyone’s been riding amazing this week. It feels really really good. Honoured.”
Parrot would finish with the silver in a huge, three-medal day for the Canadian squad, while Kleveland would earn bronze for his second medal of the Aspen 2021 FIS Snowboard & Freeski World Championships.
With the win, McMorris became the first-ever Canadian man to stand atop a World Championships podium in any of the Park & Pipe events, only furthering the legacy of one of the best to ever do it.
TRICK LIST
WOMEN:
GOLD - Laurie Blouin (CAN): frontside double cork 1080 weddle to tail grab, switch frontside double 1080 weddle
SILVER - Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL): frontside double cork 1080 melon, backside double cork 1080 weddle
BRONZE - Miyabi Onitsuka (JPN): switch frontside double cork 1260 melon, backside double cork 1080 mute
MEN:
GOLD - Mark McMorris (CAN) - switch backside 1620 melon, backside 1620 weddle
SILVER - Max Parrot (CAN): frontside triple cork 1620 weddle, switch frontside triple cork 1620 indy
BRONZE - Marcus Kleveland - frontside triple cork 1440 weddle, cab 1800 indy
QUICK LINKS:
Aspen 2021 Virtual Media Hub (extended podium quotes and much more)
