Sage Kotsenburg
Mike Blake/Reuters/Landov
Winning the Olympic gold medal, for one.
And winning it with a trick so outrageous, he named it the "Holy Crail."
The 20-year-old American jetted off the first big jump of the slopestyle course Saturday and propelled himself into a helicopter twirl that whirred around for four-and-a-half rotations. While in the air, he grabbed the back of his board and flexed his legs behind his back.
Kotsenburg landed the jump cleanly. The fans in the mostly full stands, knowing they had seen something completely new in a completely new Olympic sport, let out a huge gasp.
On the strength of a trick that will officially go down as a "1620 Japan Air Mute Grab," the kid from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and known as "Second Run Sage" posted a winning score of 93.5 on his first run.
Nobody in the 12-man field of finalists could top him. Kotsenburg put the first gold medal of the Sochi Games into the "USA" column. It was also the first Olympic gold medal awarded in this sport's history. Soon after, he and the other medalists, Staale Sandbech of Norway and Mark McMorris of Canada, were hugging, body-slamming and turning their sport's "Kiss and Cry" zone into a mosh pit.
"I kind of do random stuff all the time, never make a plan up," Kotsenburg said. "I had no idea I was even going to do a 1620 in my run until three minutes before I dropped. It's kind of what I'm all about."
A New High Point
Kotsenburg's jump was the high point of yet another sunny, windless day at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. Combining all that, along with a bit of half-expected, half-legitimate griping about the judging, made it easy to forget that Shaun White had pulled out of this event before qualifying, complaining about the toughness of the course.
White, one of the most cutting-edge innovators in the game, was practicing on the halfpipe below when Kotsenburg landed a trick nobody had seen in a bona fide contest.
"Never even tried it before," Kotsenburg said. "Never, ever tried it in my life."
There are, of course, seven or eight tricks in every run – boxes to jump on, rails to ride over and even the option to jump over the giant Russian nesting doll near the top of the course. Splashes and bobbles on any of them can cost precious points.
But rider after rider came off the course and concluded that Kotsenburg's win symbolized a shift in the sport; that judges are looking for more technical moves with so-called style rather than a simple gymnastics meet on the snow.
As recently as a month ago, McMorris was considered a favorite to win the gold, whether White showed up at the contest or not.
But he broke a rib after slamming into a rail during the finals of the Winter X Games two weeks ago. There was some thought he'd wear a Kevlar vest to protect himself, but no.
"If you ride the best you can ride, and you're satisfied with that, the rest is up to the judges," McMorris said. "To be honest, that's the least of my worries. I'm just really, really thankful, from where I was two weeks ago, to be on the podium."
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