Aspen local Alex Ferreira redeemed a sixth-place finish at the U.S. Grand Prix in early January by reaching the X Games podium in Aspen this weekend.
He placed third in the men’s ski superpipe on Sunday, but it was his final run that earned him a bronze medal.
First, second and third place are determined by the top scoring run out of the three attempts.
Ferreira only scored 68.66 points in his first run on Sunday. He came out more aggressively on his second run, but he fell on his last trick, giving him a score of 61.33.
But standing at the top of the halfpipe before his third run, Ferreira had one thought going through his mind.
“I can go home sad tonight, or I can go home happy.”
Ferreira ended up going home happy, scoring 90 points. He is now headed to the Winter Olympics.
“I’m definitely looking to amp my run up ahead of the Olympics, and it’s gonna be really, really heavy, so I’ve got to give it my all,” he said after the medal ceremony at Buttermilk Mountain on Sunday night.
Leaderboard highlights
With the return of snowmobiles to the X Games on Friday, Canadian Brett Turcotte had the chance to redeem himself from the 2020 games.
He won gold on Friday in the freestyle competition.
On Saturday, Japan’s Cocomo Murase became the first woman to land a 1620 triple cork — 4.5 rotations on a snowboard — during a competition. This secured her a first-place finish in the women’s snowboard big air and a score of 96.66 points.
“Three years ago, I couldn’t put it down, so this time, I’m just really stoked to pull it off,” she said.
In two men’s events on Saturday night, history was also made.
During the men’s ski knuckle huck final, Park City skier Alex Hall became the first skier to win a gold medal in the event three times. Later that night, Australian snowboarder Scotty James tied retired snowboarder Shaun White and current U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim for the most X Games gold medals.
James also landed a never-before-seen switch backside 1440 to backside 1440 combination trick.
“All my competitors that I ride against, every year, they get better,” James said. “I really felt like I wanted to do something for myself and for halfpipe and push backside riding as much as I can. I wanted to come out and do the first-ever back-to-back backside 14s."
In the women’s ski superpipe on Friday, Australian rookie Indra Brown, 15, became the youngest woman ever to medal in the ski superpipe at the X Games. She secured a silver medal. She was also the youngest competitor at the games this year.
