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Snowboarding at the 2022 Winter Olympics – Men's slopestyle

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Men's slopestyle
at the XXIV Olympic Winter Games
VenueGenting Snow Park,
Zhangjiakou
Date6, 7 February
Competitors30 from 15 nations
Winning points90.96
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Max Parrot  Canada
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Su Yiming  China
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Mark McMorris  Canada
← 2018
2026 →

The men's slopestyle competition in snowboarding at the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 6 February (qualification) and 7 February (final), at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou.[1] Max Parrot of Canada became the Olympic champion. Su Yiming of China won the silver medal, whereas Mark McMorris of Canada replicated his success at the 2014 and 2018 Olympics by winning the bronze. For Parrot this is the first Olympic gold, and for Su the first Olympic medal. The scoring in the finals was mired in controversy after the judges admitted to missing a "glaring error" by Parrot that some speculate would have given Su Yiming the gold medal.[2] The head snowboarding judge, Iztok Sumatic, later stated in an interview that the final scores was wrong due to the judging error, and that Su should have won the gold instead. However, because neither McMorris nor Su filed an official appeal, it had meant that the flawed results will not be changed.[3][4]

Summary

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The defending champion is Red Gerard. The 2018 silver medalist, Max Parrot, and the bronze medalist, Mark McMorris, qualified at the Olympics as well. At the 2021–22 FIS Snowboard World Cup, only three slopestyle events were held before the Olympics. Sébastien Toutant was leading the ranking, followed by Niek van der Velden and Su Yiming. Marcus Kleveland is the 2021 world champion, with Toutant and Rene Rinnekangas being the silver and bronze medalists, respectively. Dusty Henricksen is also the 2019 X-Games winner, ahead of Mons Røisland and Rinnekangas.

Qualification

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A total of 30 snowboarders qualified to compete at the games. For an athlete to compete they must have a minimum of 50.00 FIS points in Big Air or Slopestyle on the FIS Points List on January 17, 2022, and a top 30 finish in a World Cup event in Big Air or slopestyle or at the FIS Snowboard World Championships 2021. A country could enter a maximum of four athletes into the event.[5]

Results

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Qualification

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Q — Qualified for the Final

The top 12 athletes in the qualifiers advanced to the Final.[6]

Rank Bib Order Name Country Run 1 Run 2 Best Notes
1 16 28 Su Yiming  China 86.80 41.93 86.80 Q
2 3 4 Mark McMorris  Canada 62.70 83.30 83.30 Q
3 8 17 Sean FitzSimons  United States 78.76 26.75 78.76 Q
4 21 15 Ståle Sandbech  Norway 70.11 78.61 78.61 Q
5 1 1 Redmond Gerard  United States 78.20 43.95 78.20 Q
6 17 26 Takeru Otsuka  Japan 32.93 74.93 74.93 Q
7 25 19 Emiliano Lauzi  Italy 71.71 47.76 71.71 Q
8 4 2 Sébastien Toutant  Canada 23.68 71.06 71.06 Q
9 7 10 Mons Røisland  Norway 70.96 41.41 70.96 Q
10 11 13 Max Parrot  Canada 70.11 36.68 70.11 Q
11 6 21 Chris Corning  United States 48.48 69.30 69.30 Q
12 19 6 Kaito Hamada  Japan 56.06 67.45 67.45 Q
13 10 9 Rene Rinnekangas  Finland 67.10 60.10 67.10
14 2 5 Marcus Kleveland  Norway 37.28 64.86 64.86
15 27 18 Vlad Khadarin  ROC 64.73 21.15 64.73
16 23 8 Noah Vicktor  Germany 16.66 62.56 62.56
17 5 3 Dusty Henricksen  United States 37.46 58.46 58.46
18 12 11 Tiarn Collins  New Zealand 58.36 29.21 58.36
19 24 27 Ruki Tobita  Japan 29.23 56.58 56.58
20 22 20 Nicolas Huber  Switzerland 50.46 54.58 54.58
21 20 14 Hiroaki Kunitake  Japan 50.36 51.43 51.43
22 13 12 Niek van der Velden  Netherlands 26.51 46.03 46.03
23 9 29 Darcy Sharpe  Canada 45.46 25.15 45.46
24 18 25 Sven Thorgren  Sweden 40.73 34.71 40.73
25 30 22 Jonas Bösiger  Switzerland 40.11 17.58 40.11
26 15 24 Matthew Cox  Australia 34.46 39.98 39.98
27 28 16 Clemens Millauer  Austria 38.71 32.06 38.71
28 26 23 Kalle Järvilehto  Finland 15.06 28.73 28.73
29 14 7 Leon Vockensperger  Germany 25.15 26.41 26.41
30 29 30 Niklas Mattsson  Sweden 24.18 20.55 24.18

Final

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[7]

Rank Bib Order Name Country Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Best
1st place, gold medalist(s) 11 3 Max Parrot  Canada 79.86 90.96 36.56 90.96
2nd place, silver medalist(s) 16 12 Su Yiming  China 78.38 88.70 66.58 88.70
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 3 11 Mark McMorris  Canada 76.98 80.85 88.53 88.53
4 1 8 Redmond Gerard  United States 83.25 71.86 28.65 83.25
5 25 6 Emiliano Lauzi  Italy 80.01 27.48 39.48 80.01
6 6 2 Chris Corning  United States 31.58 20.78 65.11 65.11
7 7 4 Mons Røisland  Norway 29.01 63.33 52.53 63.33
8 19 1 Kaito Hamada  Japan 25.90 15.91 59.36 59.36
9 4 5 Sébastien Toutant  Canada 52.63 30.40 54.00 54.00
10 17 7 Takeru Otsuka  Japan 52.75 50.58 52.80 52.80
11 21 9 Ståle Sandbech  Norway 29.05 27.43 39.66 39.66
12 8 10 Sean FitzSimons  United States 29.48 29.61 26.61 29.61

Concerns and controversies

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The medal results stirred controversy when Canada's Max Parrot, during his gold winning performance, grabbed his knee instead of the board. Replays showed him "failing to grab his board and instead clutching around his lower leg, meaning that the maneuver was incomplete and should have been marked down."[2] Despite this, the run was scored as a 90.96. In a later interview with snowboarding website Whitelines, the head Olympic snowboard judge Iztok Sumatik explained that they were "being pushed to be on time" and that the judges did not get a replay of the trick.[8] In the angle provided to the judges, the trick had looked clean.

Fans on social media had also complained that Su was "robbed" of the gold with inexplicable low-scoring by the judges even after Su had successfully completed both his first and second runs that included the first-ever completion of the 1800 trick in competition.[9][10][11][3]

During the coverage of the event, TV commentators were quick to notice the error in Parrot's gold medal run. Before the score was announced, Australian Channel 7 commentators Mitch Tomlinson and Ryan Tiene noticed that Parrot had missed grabbing his board twice and likely grabbed his leg to prevent getting injured. They said "unfortunately for Max, he's going to have points deducted."[2] However, when the score came out, they realized that the judges had missed the error and said "that's not good for snowboarding."[2]

BBC commentator Ed Leigh pointed out that the knee grab was a "cardinal sin". In the BBC broadcast, Leigh said, "Something like that should have cost Parrot two or three points... I looked at the sector scores afterwards - he got 9.35 out of 10. If they had spotted [the error], it would have been a six or a 6.5. There were three points between bronze and gold - that would have totally upended the podium."[12][13] He went on to say that "there is a glaring judging error putting Max Parrot in gold" and that giving him the gold would be "controversial."[12][2] Online, people dubbed this knee-gate, and Whitelines said that it "will go down in history a la Diego Maradona’s Hand Of God as one of the worst calls we’ll see in sport."[14]

Moreover, bronze medalist Mark McMorris felt he had the best run of the day, and should have been the gold medalist, "but knowing that I kind of had the run of the day and one of the best rounds of my life and the whole industry knows what happened". Parrot, acknowledged the error and still felt like he deserved the gold medal, "But in the end, it's a judged sport and the fact is I had the most technical run of the day on pretty much every feature". Lead judge for the event, Iztok Sumatic said, "there are so many factors. All I can say, in Max's defence, regarding this specific run, is that it was still an insane run. He killed it, especially on the rails." Ultimately the blame lied with the organiziers, who failed to provide multiple angles of the event.[3] Parrot reviewed the runs by the three medalists and, "he spotted three "little mistakes" during McMorris' turn, and also noted a few errors by Su", while Parrot, "didn't have any mistakes on five of the six features, and on the one jump, I had a bigger mistake".[15]

References

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  1. ^ "Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games Competition Schedule Version 9" (PDF). New.inews.gtimg.com. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Cancer survivor's stirring gold medal plunged into controversy over 'glaring' error". 7NEWS. 7 February 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Dichter, Myles (11 February 2022). "'I had the run of the day': McMorris slams scoring in snowboard event won by fellow Canadian Parrot". www.cbc.ca. CBC Sports. Archived from the original on 19 March 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  4. ^ Lane, Barnaby. "Head Olympic judge acknowledges error in controversial snowboard contest which saw a 17-year-old Chinese sensation just miss gold". Insider. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
  5. ^ "Qualification System for Xxiv Olympic Winter Games, Beijing 2022 International Ski Federation Snowboard" (PDF). Fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS). 19 October 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  6. ^ Qualification results
  7. ^ Final Results
  8. ^ ""We judged from a specific media angle that we were given": Olympic Head Snowboard Judge Speaks About The Controversial Slopestyle Result". Whitelines Snowboarding. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  9. ^ "Snowboarder Su Yiming Makes History With Controversial Silver Medal". RADII | Stories from the center of China’s youth culture. 8 February 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  10. ^ "China's Su Yiming denied gold by 'glaring judging error'". South China Morning Post. 7 February 2022. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  11. ^ "Su Yiming 'ROBBED' of gold by judges in Olympic snowboarding event, say fans". meaww.com. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  12. ^ a b "China's Su Yiming denied gold by 'glaring judging error'". South China Morning Post. 7 February 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  13. ^ "Canada's Parrot takes slopestyle gold after judging error". BBC Sport. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  14. ^ "Knee-Gate | The Snowboarding World Weighs In On Olympics Controversy". Whitelines Snowboarding. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  15. ^ Seiner, Jake (12 February 2022). "'I had the run of the day': McMorris slams scoring in snowboard event won by fellow Canadian Parrot". www.cbc.ca/. CBC Sports. Associated Press. Retrieved 13 February 2022.