ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Jamie Anderson, a star of American competitive snowboarding, will try to win her third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the final of women’s slopestyle on Sunday. Anderson, a California native, won in 2014, slopestyle’s inaugural Olympic appearance, and again in 2018.
Now 31, she is a strong contender, although maybe not the favorite. New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, 20, beat Anderson two weeks ago at the X Games in Aspen, Colo., and hopes to avenge what she considers a major disappointment: a 13th-place finish at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, when she was just 16.
The final is stacked with elite global talent, though. Among those who hope for a gold-medal upset, or at least a position on the podium, are Japan’s Kokomo Murase, Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi, Austria’s Anna Gasser and Australia’s Tess Coady.
Each athlete will make three runs down the difficult course of rails and jumps. The best single run wins.
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