Kokomo Murase Wins Gold Medal for Snowboarding Big Air at Olympics 2026

There was no topping Kokomo Murase on Monday.

The Japanese snowboarder bookended a pair of massive scores in her first and third runs at the Milano Cortina Games big air competition and registered an overall score of 179, becoming the first woman other than two-time defending gold medalist Anna Gasser to ever win the event.

New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott claimed silver, scoring 172.25, while South Korea's Seungeun Yu took bronze with a score of 171.

Gasser scored just 121.25 overall, finishing fourth and well out of the running for a medal. Sadowski-Synnott is the only woman to ever medal at every Olympic big air competition, claiming two silvers and a bronze.

Murase put herself in a fantastic position to win with a first-round score of 89.75, though Yu went into the final round leading the pack after scores of 87.75 and 83.25.

But Sadowski-Synnott quickly erased that lead, following up an 88.75 in her second run with a final-run score of 83.50.

It was all a formality, however, as Murase went huge in her final run, posting an 89.25, easily giving her enough points to claim gold after registering the two highest scores on the evening.