"I can't explain it. I'm so happy."
Yu Seung-eun scored a total of 171 points in the women's snowboard big air final at the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics held at Livigno Snow Park in Italy on the 10th (Korea time), finishing third behind Murase Kokomo (Japan·179 points) and Joih Sadowski-Synnott (New Zealand·172.25 points).
Yu Seung-eun cleanly landed a backside triple cork 1440, which spins four times toward her back, in the first run and received 87.75 points, ranking second overall. In the following second run, she rotated four times in the frontside direction and added 83.25 points, putting her first in the interim standings.
She failed to stick the landing in the final third run and was left with 20.75 points. She ceded her ranking to Murase and Sadowski-Synnott, who performed earlier, but claimed a valuable bronze medal. She told broadcasters she was "so happy."
Yu Seung-eun, who turned 18 on the 28th of last month ahead of the Olympics, is the youngest member of the Korean delegation at this Games. At the same time, she left the record of being Korea's first Olympic medalist in women's ski and snowboard history.
Korea ski and snowboard's only Olympic medal had been Lee Sang-ho (Nexen Wingard) winning the silver in the men's parallel giant slalom at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. At Milan-Cortina, they harvested two medals in a single Olympics for the first time. While the earlier medal came from an alpine event, this time they added their first Olympic medal in the freestyle big air event, which contests aerial skills.
According to the Korea Ski and Snowboard Association on the 10th, the association plans to award a prize of 200 million won to Kim Sang-Gyeom and 100 million won to Yu Seung-eun. Kim Sang-Gyeom won the silver medal in the men's parallel giant slalom at the Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics held at Livigno Snowpark in Italy on the 8th.
The big air event was adopted as an official event at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. Athletes descend a slope of more than 30 meters, launch from a large jump, and are judged on rotation, landing and execution. The top 12 from qualifying advance to the final and perform three runs, and the rankings are determined by adding the two highest scores among them.<
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