French phenom Tess Ledeux won the women’s ski Big Air last night at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado. It’s her second straight Big Air gold after winning at X Games Norway last year.
Tess kicked off her evening at the X Games with a flawless double cork 1260 mute grab to secure an early lead, one she didn’t give up for the rest of the night. She stomped the rest of her hits in quick succession: clean switch 1080s to both the left and the right, a flawless switch left 1260 japan that she’s never done before, and a cork 900 tail to tail grab as a victory lap.
Tess Ledeux Winning Runs | Winter X Games 2020 Women´s Ski Big Air (YouTube)
Trailing her in second place was last year’s Big Air champion Mathilde Gremaud. She held it down with two doubles of her own, a switch double cork 1080 safety and a forward double 12 safety to tail—a combo not seen in women’s competition before. She appeared to be looking for a rightside double bio 1080 on her last hit, but couldn’t get it quite clean, and had to settle for silver.
Gremaud was followed up by her Swiss teammate Sarah Hoefflin, the only woman to land double corks spun in both directions with a switch left double cork 900 safety and a switch right double 1080 mute. She rounded out her showing for the evening with a cork 900 stale.
Women´s Ski Big Air Finals | Full Replay | Winter X Games 2020 (YouTube)
Several other women showed their double-cork aspirations as well: Maggie Voisin took three tries to put down a large-and-in-charge double cork 12 clean, while Megan Oldham landed her own double cork 12 that she’d learned during practice.
Without a double cork of her own but with flawless switch spins in both directions, the Estonian wunderkind Kelly Sildaru missed the podium on this go-round, even with squeaky-clean switch 10s and a switch 12. She’ll be looking for a better result in the halfpipe and slopestyle contest still to come this weekend.