Julia Marino Wins 1st US Medal at Beijing Olympics
Bagging Silver in Slopestyle Snowboard, Julia Marino Wins first US medal at 2022 Olympics
Julia Marino Wins Silver in Slopestyle Snowboard Photo via NBC Sports
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Julia Marino of Westport, Connecticut, landed the first medal for the U.S. ski and snowboard team, winning a silver in the slopestyle snowboard. A seven-time X Games medalist, Julia participated in the 2018 Olympics previously, placing 11th. This is her first Olympic medal. She put down an almost perfect run.
At 18, she became the first woman to land a double in slopestyle, doing two in the same run no less — a Cab double underflip and double backflip. Her win this Sunday was tremendous and where it mattered most.
With calm winds but subzero conditions, the setting at Genting Snowpark in Beijing, China for the Olympics showdown has been definitely cold. Nonetheless for an East coast rider used to cold conditions, Marino held out. Nervous during her first run, Marino came back around on the second run with a half-Cab to backside 360 out on the flat rail, a lipslide pretzel on the down rail, a switch boardslide underflip out on the cannon rail followed by solid jumps that included a backside 900 melon, Cab double 900 Indy and a final frontside 1080 mute, scoring a strong finish of 87.68.
Zoe Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand bested Marino out of gold with her third run at 92.88 and Tess Coady of Australian came in at third with 84.15. Despite taking second place, Marino did not display any disappointment and ran out to congratulate Zoe and celebrate, showing both graciousness and sportsmanship.
Marino surpassed both defending gold U.S. medalist Jamie Anderson who came in at 8th place as well as favorite, Hailey Langland, who landed at 11th place.
View results of Women’s Slopestyle finals.