Julia Marino, 19, captures second X Games medal with gold in snowboard slopestyle
ASPEN, Colo. – It’s already been a heck of a year for Julia Marino. Since February, the 19-year-old snowboarder won her first big air competition at Fenway Park and landed on the podium in two other events.
Just less than 12 months later, the X Games rookie will leave this competition with two medals.
Marino claimed gold in the women’s snowboard slopestyle competition at Buttermilk Mountain on Saturday, using the most technical rail riding of the day to score a 94.66.
It was Marino’s second medal in three days after she claimed bronze in the first every X Games big air competition.
“It’s honestly just an unreal experience and an unreal feeling right now,” Marino said. “I came into X Games really excited to be a part of it... I set goals for myself but definitely didn’t think I was going to come away with two medals.”
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Marino has turned herself into a contender to make the U.S. Olympic team with about a year to go until the PyeongChang Games.
She was an alternate before coming in to win the FIS World Cup/U.S. Grand Prix at Fenway Park. Marino went on to become the first woman to land a double in a slopestyle competition, using a cab double underflip to take third at the Corona World Championships of Snowboarding in March.
In November, she took second at the FIS World Cup in Korea.
Marino chalked her success up to repetition.
“Just kind of really trying to feel solid on all my tricks,” she said.
Jamie Anderson, meanwhile, rebounded from a nasty crash in the big air competition to win her 12th X Games slopestyle medal, bettering the record she held for men and women with a score of 91.33 to take silver.
The Sochi gold medalist has long been the USA’s top rider in the event, but Marino and 16-year-old Hailey Langland – who won the big air competition and finished fourth in slopestyle – have given the American team depth in those events heading into an Olympic year.
Marino hopes to keep building on her breakout year after she lets her accomplishments here sink in.
“I just kind of went in with a really big fire and passion and dropped in with a lot of heat and was able to put it down,” she said.