Snowboarder Kira Kimura gets Japan off to golden start at Milano Cortina Olympics
Livigno, Italy –
Snowboarder Kira Kimura made sure Team Japan's Winter Olympics got off to a golden start Saturday.
To do it, he had to soar past his own teammate.
Kimura and Ryoma Kimata finished one-two in the men's big air competition to kick off what could be a medal rush for Japan at Livigno Snow Park. China's Su Yiming, who won gold at the 2022 Games, took bronze.
“Last year, I had a lot of anxiety about tricks, but this year, that was completely gone,” Kimura told reporters later. “It's hard to describe, but it was really just about executing, just thinking ‘do it.’”
“I think that was huge.”
Kimura went into his last of three runs in fourth position after stumbling in his second attempt. That meant he needed to go big in order to pass the top two riders, Kimata and Su, with his final trick, with each rider's top two tricks counting toward their final scores.
Kira Kimura of Japan in action during his third run in the men's snowboard big air final | REUTERS
Kimura stomped the landing on a switch backside 1980 mute grab, raised his hands over his head and watched as the judges rewarded him with 90.50 points for a total score of 179.50.
He was the first and, as it turned out, only rider to break the 90-point threshold on a single trick.
Su was the penultimate rider to go and touched his hand down on the landing to ensure that Japan had its first gold of the Games. The only question was who would wear it.
Kimata needed a big score to catch up to Kimura but failed to improve on the 171.50 he had earned with his first two jumps and settled for silver.
Kimura has never won gold in a World Cup event.
“I really couldn't win a World Cup event for a long time. Winning at a place like this made me incredibly happy, and I really felt the center spot was high up,” he said.
Kimura celebrates on the podium alongside silver medallist Ryoma Kimata and bronze medallist Yiming Su of China. | REUTERS
“It felt great.”
Japan could be in for more golden celebrations at Livigno Snow Park over the next two weeks, with a talented group of snowboarders poised to lead the nation to what the Japanese Olympic Committee hopes will be a record Winter Olympic medal haul at these Games.
On Friday, Ayumu Hirano will attempt to defend his Olympic title in the halfpipe as he looks to fend off challenges from his talented teammates. But more medals could come sooner than that, with parallel giant slalom star Tsubaki Miki eyeing a gold medal of her own on Sunday.
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