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Hirano Ayumu made history Saturday, becoming Japan’s first ever Olympic snowboarding gold medalist. Ayumu credits skateboarding to achieving his skills on the snowboard.
“Being able to do both snowboarding and skateboarding is certainly my weapon. I’ve been skateboarding from a very young age. In terms of the vertical, there’s very similar things in halfpipe, so the training that I’ve been doing for that has been helpful. The kick-off technique for skateboarding is something I’ve studied a lot, I’ve really focussed on that, and of course that is very helpful in terms of snowboarding,” said Ayumu.
“Amplitude, height, is something I’ve really worked on. The spin technique has become ever more advanced, and because of that it’s difficult to get that lift, that amplitude, and to have the right balance. There’s certainly difficulties because of that technical side. But we don’t want to lose that amplitude” continued Ayumu.
Chinese speed skater Gao Tingyu set a new Olympic record and took the gold in the men’s 500m. Tingyu set the record for the fastest 500m race in Olympic history.
Gao’s mark of 34.32 was 0.09 seconds faster than the record set by Norway’s Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen in PyeongChang in 2018, taking the gold and beating out the Republic of Korea’s Cha Min Kyu at 34.39, and Japan’s Morishige Wataru at 34.49. During the 2018 Winter Olympics, Tingyu became the first athlete from the People’s Republic of China to win an Olympic speed skating medal.
“I just want to say that I made it, I said four years ago that I will win gold in Beijing 2022, and today I made it,” said Tingyu.
Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe took an Olympic gold in the 10km sprint biathlon, posting a winning time of 24:00.4, beating out French biathlete Quentin Fillon Maillet. He also shared the podium with his older brother by five years, Tarjei. Twenty-eight year old Boe added the gold to bronze he won in the 20 km individual event and the gold in the mixed relay during this year’s Olympics.
“It is special, my second individual Olympic title, I’ve trained for this for so many years and then you come here and manage to put yourself in the best position and the best shape. I look forward to the next race,” said Boe.
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