It's weird to see an X Games Big Air go down in full daylight, but that was the scheduling for this year's women's event, and not for the first time. The ladies went absolutely HAM but it would be nice to see them get a chance under the lights next time (hint, hint), and at least that way they'd be able to see...
In a field missing Eileen Gu, Sarah Hoefflin, and Kelly Sildaru, with snow falling on the course and definite speed issues, you might have expected a subdued contest, but the women's field is running deep these days. Dubs were flying from all directions but nearly the whole field needed a push from their coach to get the speed and there were some heavy crashes throughout, likely thanks to the totally flat light. It wasn't a great look for the contest.
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The opening salvo of dubs included Olivia Asselin, who started things off with a dub flat 9 with the raddest of axes for a 35. Maggie Voisin stomped a perfect dub 12, courtesy of a solid speed push from the coach, and left dub 12s from Tess Ledeux and Megan Oldham followed.
Run 2 saw Johanne Killi stomp a switch dub 10, tickled the grab. Tess Ledeux attempted to seriously raise the bar with a dub 16 attempt. Mathilde Gremaud took a pretty heavy slam on a bio 9 attempt, which is usually a trick she has totally dialed, which says a lot about the conditions. She skipped the rest of her runs and we really hope she's ok with the big show still to come.
After a short delay, Run 3 kicked off with a stomped misty 10 from Elena Gaskell, and a dub 10 from Giulia Tanno. Johanne Killi cleaned up her switch dub 10. Tess Ledeux then stomped the dub 16, the first-ever on the women's side, and took a commanding lead courtesy of a score of 49.
Run 4, Elena Gaskell was the one to take a heavy hit, but walked off and seemed ok. Giulia Tanno improved her dub 10, Maggie Voisin improved the flat 9, super perfect, but just not technical enough it seemed. Tess Ledeux stomped a flawless dub 12 to improve her commanding lead by one.
Olivia Asselin rounded out her contest with a sick dub 12 blunt but slightly dragged her hands. Having gone to the moon the previous run, Elena Gaskell came up a little short. Giulia kept it safe with a capped cork 9, Maggie again improved the flat 9 but not enough to overtake Olivia Asselin and bump her off a debut podium. Last to drop, Megan Oldham tried her best to upset the top of the podium with a flawless right dub 12 (that's both ways if you actually read this far) but it needed to be a perfect 50, and that wasn't to be. That meant Tess Ledeux took the W and well deserved it was too. Huge respect to the ladies for sending so hard so close to the big show in Beijing.
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Results:
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Highlights:
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1028038/X-Games-W-BA-Highlights-mov
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Full Replay (you may need a US VPN if you're located elsewhere):
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