American Gerard becomes second youngest men's gold medalist at Winter Olympics
Xinhua,February 11, 2018 Adjust font size:
PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- American Redmond Gerard became the second youngest gold medalist in an individual men's event at Winter Olympics by winning the snowboard slopestyle champion of PyeongChang Olympics at Phoenix Snow Park here on Sunday.
The 17-year-old Gerard convinced the jury with his unconventional choice of route in the slopestyle final and got 87.16 points to win America's first gold in PyeongChang.
"It was awesome. I just told myself that I want to land a run and I was a little bummed on my first two runs because I fell a couple of times," Gerard said. "I'm just so happy that it all worked out."
Gerard preserved American streak of winning gold in slopestyle, which was added to the Olympics schedule in 2014.
"It feels incredible. I'm just really happy that I got to land a run and I'm just really excited right now," Gerard added.
Canadian Max Parrot took the silver with his final run of 86.00 and compatriot Mark McMorris got the bronze in 85.20.
Toni Nieminen of Finland is still the youngest men's gold medalist, who won the individual large hill event in ski jumping in 1992 when he was 16 years old. Enditem