It wasn’t the cleanest, but has there ever been an air sicker than Charles Gagnier’s cross-armed, double-grabbed switch 1260?
Alright, Jon Olsson’s utterly graceful Kangaroo Flip registered just as high on the sichter scale.
Under the X Games lights Friday night and on the death-gapped step-up Big Air ramp, four of skiing’s most aeronautically inclined athletes went head-to-head in a jump off that ranks as the most rowdy contest yet this X.
Winners were tapped by text-messaging television viewers and a pair of judges. Swede Jakob Wester lost to Canuck Frenchman Gagnier and Monaco superstar Olsson beat the soaring pipe king Simon Dumont, leaving an Olsson-Gagnier leap-off.
Would it be Gagnier’s switch 1260 “octo-grab” with a rough landing? Or Olsson’s trademark and flawless Kangaroo Flip, an inverted corked-out 1080 that has threatened to shove airborne skiing from its most-spins-wins rut.
Voters and judges agreed: Olsson is Big Air royalty. Olsson’s gold is his ninth medal, the second-most skiing medals in X Games history.
