LIVIGNO, Italy — Japanese snowboarder Yuto Totsuka won the Olympic gold medal in men’s halfpipe at the Milan Cortina Games on Friday as Scotty James repeated as the silver medalist.
Totsuka laid down a massive second run featuring back-to-back jumps with three head-over-heels flips each. That effort earned him 95 points.
James had the last run of the final after he topped qualifying Wednesday. But the Australian fell near the end of his run, failing to improve on his second-run score of 93.50.
The 31-year-old James collected his third medal after winning silver at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and bronze four years earlier at the Pyeongchang Games.
Ryusei Yamada of Japan took bronze on Friday.
The 24-year-old Totsuka, competing at the Olympics for the third time, is currently leading the World Cup halfpipe standings.
These were medals Nos. 5 and 6 for Japanese snowboarders at the Milan Cortina Games. Three of those have been gold.
Kira Kimura and Ryomo Kimata took gold and silver in men’s big air, Kokomo Murase won gold in women’s big air, and Mitsuki Ono took bronze in women’s halfpipe.
On Friday, Ruka Hirano finished fourth, while defending halfpipe champion Ayumu Hirano finished seventh. The 2022 champion was competing while not fully recovered from a bad fall last month that injured his face and pelvis.
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