Winter Olympics: Japan’s Sena Tomita stuns favourite Maddie Mastro field to win X Games gold ahead in Beijing 2022 tune-up
- Tomita initially waved off a presenter who was about to hang the gold medal around her neck, thinking it was a mistake
- Defending Olympic champion Chloe Kim did not take part in Aspen, Colorado but will challenge for gold at the Winter Olympics
Japan’s Sena Tomita thought it was a mistake when they placed the gold medal around her neck.
The 22-year-old half-pipe rider won her first Winter X Games title in Aspen, Colorado – the victory secured when the favourite, Maddie Mastro, decided not to take a fourth and final run to try for the win.
While Tomita stood at the bottom and looked toward the starting area to watch Mastro, an X Games presenter came to her with the gold medal. Tomita at first waved her off, figuring it must be a mistake. It wasn’t, and now Tomita joins the likes of Chloe Kim, Kelly Clark and Gretchen Bleiler as a winner of one of snowboarding’s premier events.
Tomita will be at the Olympics in two weeks. Kim, the defending Olympic champion and a six-time X Games winner, wasn’t at this contest as she prepares for Beijing.
So, this stop in Aspen shaped up as a showdown between Spain’s Queralt Castellet and Mastro, who has been working on the double-cork 1080 – a trick with two off-axis flips that some believe gives her an outside chance to beat Kim in China.