It is her first Olympics, and 23-year-old Kaitlyn Farrington will leave with a smile. She captured the gold in the halfpipe competition with a score of 91.75.
She squeaked past defending gold medalist Torah Bright, who scored 91.50. Farrington‘s teammate Kelly Clark, the 2002 gold medalist, landed the only 1080 and scored a 90.75 for the bronze. American Hannah Teter, the 2006 gold medalist, received fourth place.
Farrington was one of the only riders to have two clean runs in the first and second round of the finals, landing technical tricks including a switchback and wrong-way air fakey in the first round that got her a score of 85.75, and an alley-oop 540 and backside 900 that earned her the winning score of 91.75.
This is America’s third gold medal, and all three are in snowboarding. For the first time since the halfpipe was introduced in 1998 no American men won a medal. Shaun White placed fourth, but he said he wants to come back for the 2018 games in South Korea.
Her teammate Arielle Gold pulled out in the morning after she suffered a shoulder injury during practice.
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