The big takeaway is that New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott put on a show and proved why she is the current dominant force at the top of women’s snowboarding, followed up by her cohort of Big Air heavyweights in Japan’s Kokomo Murase and Great Britain’s Mia Brookes, rounding out the top three qualifiers.

Now for my watching experience. For those who read the Men’s Big Air recaps, you know the plan was to sit on my couch and watch all of these Winter Games. I failed again today because my little brother wanted to go snowboarding, and I figured that riding is just as important as watching. I mean, it probably doesn’t cast as wide of a net as the Olympics do for our sport, but watching an 8-year-old rip down the hill and hit his first box definitely keeps the stoke alive. I also figured I would be able to catch a good amount in the lodge but there was no snowboarding to be found on the tvs… AT A RESORT. The eating area was playing basketball and I didn’t head to the bar because of the aforementioned age of my sibling. So I streamed the first half of the contest on my phone between laps with my brothers (older joined as well) to pretend like I was still doing my job. When the feed cut out and I asked for the wifi in the lodge, I was told they do not allow it. I guess that is cool to keep people off their phones but still pretty whack since it was only to enjoy the sport they are profiting off of (it was a Vail-owned resort in the Cleveland area if you want to join my petition to complain about their dumb policy).

But we put that behind us. As the lines got longer we decided to leave and streamed the contest on the drive home. Thank GOODNESS for Peacock. None of that Roku garbage streaming with X Games. This is not an ad, but I Peacock is making watching all the freestyle contests a breeze. THANK YOU! Mary Walsh and DC sounded great announcing while I was speeding on the highway to get back. Now, I am sitting back on my couch with a slightly bruised tailbone from falling while filming and enjoying the replay while waiting for our photos to come in from the contest. Photographer Aaron Blatt has been pretty slow with sending photos so far from Italy so this should probably line up nicely. Maybe the wifi there is being guarded by a Vail employee as well.

As far as the contest, the big dogs did their thing. Zoi put down a 90.00 on her first and backed it up with an 82.00, landing a switch backside 1620 and back double 1080 to keep her in the top spot throughout the contest. Kokomo Murase followed her up with three clean stomps of her own to secure the second qualifying spot. Mia Brookes added a little drama with a fall on her first attempt, only to come through like always with a backside 1260, going on to cleanly stomp her third and final for a strong third-place qualifying spot. Just of the qualifying podium was a mix of newcomers and staples in women’s freetyle. Anna Gasser, Tess Coady, Reira Iwabuchi all made the cut and can easily ride away with a medal on Monday night. 18-year-old Seungeun Yu out of South Korea let the world know she has arrived with a fourth-place qualifiying spot held up by an 88.75 on her third and final attempt.

The tricks and rotations varied a bit more than the Men’s Big Air with rotations sticking in the 900-1260 range. Some flat, some corked, a classic double underflip from Anna Gasser, and an attempted double sloth roll from Team USA’s Jessica Perlmutter (who landed a cab double underflip as well). Honestly, the story outside of the qualifiers is pretty impressive as well. Some of the pillars of freestyle riding from the past few winters were left out of finals like Annika Morgan and Laurie Blouin (and they will get their chance at redemption in Slopestyle), but plenty of young new names put on a show at their first Olympics. The U.S. team is full of rookies and each one put down a solid score on at least one attempt, with two of the three well into the 80s. Canada’s Juliette Pelchat, the daughter of snowboarding legend JF Pelchat, had all of snowboarding rooting for her on social media, lacing two of her three attempts and honoring the late Jeff Keenana with a sticker on her nose. Only two riders in the whole contest were unable to crack the 70.00 point mark, and that spells great things for the future of snowboarding as a whole.

For the immediate future, though, we put the full results below. Who will win it on Monday in the Women’s Big Air Finals? Who knows. Zoi is looking pretty solid but Kokomo Murase is the one holding gold from the most recent finals in Aspen just about two weeks ago. Mia Brookes was also on that podium in Aspen and is a heavy favorite as well. Japan could sweep! All four of their team riders quallified for finals and have the skill to land on the podium. Australia’s Tess Coady squeeked in with the twelfth spot, but she ain’t no slouch. Meila Stalker was profiled earlier this year in our print mag as an up-and-comer to watch, but she could toss that moniker aside pretty quickly if she rides away with an Olympic medal. And finally, it could all come down to Anna Gasser. She is looking to three-peat and is the only one who has ever actually held gold in the discipline since it debuted in the Olympics in 2018.

It is up in the air… as it should be.

See you tomorrow.