Tess Ledeux wins record breaking X Games gold in women’s slopestyle

The Format

Following the same format as the men’s slopestyle, a two-run “playoff” of eight riders would then be cut down to four riders going through to a final. Tactics and consistency are paramount in this format as riders need to land at least two out of their four runs to be in with a chance of winning.

The Playoff

The way the format is set up, most of the riders were initially looking to put down a safety run, and then hoping to build on this in run two. However, for half the field this did not go to plan. 

Rell Harwood and Olivia Asselin both crashed, Ruby Star Andrews bobbled on her first rail and threw the run away and Sarah Hoefflin went down on the final jump.

Anni Karava was the first to land a mostly clean run which included her recognisable style on the rails and her signature cork 900 lead blunt – it is a thing of beauty and no one was complaining that we got to see it four times today.

Megan Oldham used her competitive nous and landed a strategic run to jump ahead of Anni. The run included a disaster 270 onto the rainbow rail and a left double cork 1080 mute. Squeaky clean, the judges rewarded her an 89.33 – there was still room to improve.

Tess Ledeux also successfully put down her safety run which included a back 450 off the goal post rail and a right double cork 1080 safety to left cork 900 blunt combo on the jumps. Despite a tiny mistake on the top rail, she took first place after run one.

Big Air bronze medalist, Grace Henderson started off run two and improved her score only slightly after whiffing the blunt on her double cork 1080.

Olivia just did enough to push Grace out of the bubble spot however by dialling back her run significantly, making sure she could put it down clean. She would have to wait to see if her score of 81.66 would be enough to get her through to finals.

Coming off the rainbow rail early seemed to galvanise Sarah, who went on to put down on the heaviest jump lines of the day, stomping a left double cork 1080 safety, right 540 tweaked mute into switch left double cork 1080 mute. However, the mistake up top was too egregious to put her through to finals. 

Ruby also stepped up her run to push for the top four places but in doing so made a few too many mistakes, a knuckle here and a short grab there damaged her score. The meant that Megan and Tess both effectively had extra practice runs, having secured a spot each in the final. Megan did use the run to do a 450 onto the rainbow rail, which she was unable to land, but made her intentions for the finals clear for the rest of the field.

The Final

Olivia would throw away her first run after catching an edge after landing her first jump. Her rail line was fire though, linking a switch left tails 270 to regular, a right 270 up onto the goal post rail and a right foot back 360 swap to forward on the rainbow rail – full of steeze and technicality. 

Anni put one down for the culture, curating a run full of flow and classic tricks. Starting with a switch lip back 270, followed by the only trick in the world, lip on back 270, into a left foot front swap front 270 to complete the rails. Her jumps did not disappoint either, with one of the most graceful switch 900 lead blunts anyone has ever done into a right misty 720 japan and putting the exclamation mark on the run with a huge double cork 1080 mute. Anni was elated and went into the 90s.

Megan only just squeaked her double 1080 to her feet and backed it up with a switch double cork 900 japan on the money booter. However, the error on the 1080 was too much to put her in the top spots. She still scored an 88.66, proving how good the rest of her run was. 

Tess proved exactly why she is the most decorated female skier in X Games history by putting together one of the best slopestyle runs ever seen. She spins all four ways, combines switch ups and pretzels and goes double twice. She started off with a right foot front swap to front 270, switch left 270 pretzel 270 out, to switch left 270 onto the rainbow rail to forward, right double cork 1080 safety, to left double cork 1260 mute finishing with a switch right 900 safety – she knows how to pull it out the bag when it matters. She was overjoyed when her score came in as a 95.00, meaning the other girls would need to do something very special to get close to her – and she knew it.

Starting off run two, Olivia greased her rail run for the second time and this time made it through the jumps clean as well, with a right double cork 1080 safety to right 900 blunt finishing with a switch left 1080 mute. It was great to see this whole run get put down as the rail line was super progressive and dripping with steeze. She bumped up into second place with a 92.66.

Anni immediately came off the first rail slightly early and despite putting the rest of the run down, could not improve her score. This left Megan at the top in fourth place, the only person able to shake up the podium, or even dethrone Tess. She started with a switch left 270 on to forward, right foot front 450 off the goal post and then swung for the fences with a left 450 continuing 270 on the rainbow but heartbreakingly couldn’t hold on. It felt like daylight robbery to be teased this run by Megan and not get to see it in full – with the two double combo in the jumps that she had landed in the playoffs, that run would have certainly had Tess sweating. It is great to have Megan back competing and she deserves great credit for pushing the female sport forward. She might have been able to podium with a safer run, but in the name of progression she went all in for Aspen or bust and that has to be respected.

As it stood, Megan’s crash handed Tess the honor of a victory lap through the X Games course with her 7th gold medal secured. Tess’ short break from Word Cup contests, with her vision set on X Games and next year’s Olympics, has paid off and she takes home yet more X Games hardware. Henrik’s medal record is well within sight and I for one will not be betting against Tess.

You can watch a full replay of the contest here.