PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Jamie Anderson will spend almost more time gazing at each newest Olympic gold medal than watching the replays of the slopestyle run she put down to win it.
Nobody, not even the Olympic champion, would want to relive the ugliness that played on Monday on the sport’s biggest stage.
The day and the cemented herself is an all-time great by defending every Olympic title will also go down as one of the most unpleasant, dangerous days snowboarding has ever seen.
Shifting, bitter winds whipped tiny ice pellets across the iced-over jumps at the Phoenix Snow Park and stiffened the orange-colored wind socks in one direction, then another. Hundreds of numbed fans are streamed to the exits while the action was ongoing, and the stands were half-empty as the afternoon wore on, with wind chills dipping to 5 degrees (minus-15 degrees Celsius) and below.
Twenty-five riders each took two turns down a course, by almost all of their accounts, should not have been open for action. The Canadian Spencer O’Brien and a few others, in a slow ride down the course after simply pulling up because they could ‘t build
