Snowboarding's great leap forward

Japanese rider lands 'game-changing' jump to up stakes for Beijing 2022

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colorado－The next big leap in snowboarding went down Sunday on a sun-splashed halfpipe in Colorado with a trick that set the stakes for the gold-medal race to Beijing.

Japanese snowboard star Ayumu Hirano finished fifth at the Dew Tour, but his spot in the standings hardly mattered. What did matter was that he became the first person to land the difficult, dangerous and once unthinkable triple cork jump in competition.

"It's just a game-changer because the level of halfpipe riding has gotten so crazy," said snowboarding commentator Jonathan "DC" Oetken, who was at the bottom of the pipe Sunday.

Hirano, the two-time Olympic silver medalist, pulled off what's officially called a frontside triple cork 1440, a jump that involves three head-over-heels flips with a twist while grabbing the board above the 22-foot-high (7-meter) halfpipe.

Hirano's history-making jump at the top of the pipe made him wobbly in the setup to the next trick. He fell on it and didn't finish the run, which accounted for the fifth-place finish. But there was no denying that in a sport that treasures progression over practically everything else, his jump will be the buzz of the halfpipe world as the sport makes its way to the Olympics, and probably beyond.

"This is crazy," said Hirano's Japanese teammate, Yuto Totsuka, who won the contest. "I will make sure (to have it in) the next competition."

All the top Japanese riders, including Totsuka and Sunday's third-place finisher, Ruka Hirano, have been working on the trick in practice. Whoever lands it best, or at all, could be wearing a gold medal around their neck come Feb 11 in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province.