Quebec snowboarder Laurie Blouin fell on two of her three Big Air snowboard runs on Monday at the Beijing Olympics, which prevented her from getting her hands on the one of the three medals available.
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Fourth in the qualifications, the representative of La Belle Province was the ninth athlete to start. On her first attempt, she attempted a “frontside 1080o”. Despite a good altitude, Blouin crashed on landing, earning him a score of 13.50 points.
However, she was not let down by this fall and tried the same maneuver on her second attempt. This time, the Quebecer landed her jump cleanly and the judges amply rewarded her, with a score of 86.25 points, giving her hopes of a podium finish.
On her last try, Blouin attempted a “cab 1080o”, but just like on her first try, she was unable to stay on her feet on landing, being awarded a score of 28.75 and a cumulative 115.00 points, good for eighth place.
For her part, the other Canadian in the running, Jasmine Baird, first managed a “double underflip”, earning her a score of 68.75 points, before achieving a “backside 720o” which brought her 48.75. points.
She therefore began her third jump knowing that it was mathematically impossible to get on the podium, despite a perfect score of 100. A “backside 900o” of 61.25 points finally allowed her to present a cumulative of 130 .00 points, finishing in seventh place, just ahead of Blouin.
Gold decided at the last second
New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Austria’s Anna Gasser battled it out for the top step of the podium, who were respectively first and second after two rounds.
Gasser, the penultimate to start on the third run, landed the best jump of the day, racking up 95.50 points in the process. Added to the 90.00 accumulated on her first attempt, she therefore had a cumulative of 185.50 before Sadowski-Synnott’s try. The latter, trying everything for everything, fell and was thus satisfied with the silver medal, she who had won gold, a few days earlier, in slopestyle.
Gasser saw the gold medal go round her neck, while Japan’s Kokomo Murase completed the podium.