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Birk Ruud in the Olympic final
Photo: JEROME FAVRE/EPA
Ski freestyler Birk Ruud has become the first Olympic champion in the men's Big Air competition.
The Norwegian won the first edition of the discipline at the Winter Games in Beijing thanks to outstanding jumps in the first two of the three final rounds with 187.75 points.
Silver went to the US American Colby Stevenson (183.00), bronze to the Swede Henrik Harlaut (91.00) at the Shougang facility.
»I was completely in the moment and took the opportunity.
I wanted to put on a show for Norway,” said two-time X Games winner Ruud, who had already won the qualifier.
In the last round he jumped, already confirmed as Olympic champion, with a Norwegian flag in his hand.
It was the fourth gold medal in Beijing for the Scandinavians.
»The family was close together, that carried me«
In honor of his father Oivind, who died of cancer in April 2021, the 21-year-old wore a gold bracelet on his left wrist that he had once given him: "I think he would be very happy if he saw how happy I'm here and that I'll achieve my goals.«
Ruud decided not to take part in the World Cup last year in order to be able to be with his father.
"I'm very grateful for the time we still had," he said in Beijing: "The family was close together, and that supported me."
Silver medalist Stevenson narrowly survived a serious car accident in 2016, after which he had a titanium plate implanted in his skull.
Only eight months later he achieved his first slopestyle world cup victory on the Alpe di Siusi.
German athletes were not at the start in Beijing.
In the women's event, China's superstar Eileen Gu, who was born in California, won her first of up to three possible gold medals on Tuesday.
The only German starter, Aliah Delia Eichinger, missed entering the medal fight in her Olympic debut as 18th.
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