Ski and Snowboard Club Vail 16-year-old claims big air bronze at FIS Snowboard World Championships
Ollie Martin also won bronze in the slopestyle event last week
FIS Park and Pipe/Courtesy photo
Ollie Martin added to his world championships medal haul on Friday in Engadin, Switzerland.
The 16-year-old Ski and Snowboard Club Vail snowboarder claimed a bronze in the big air at the FIS Snowboard World Championships, one week after earning the same prize in the slopestyle competition. Japanese riders Ryoma Kimata and Taiga Hasegawa went 1-2, scoring 176.75 and 174.50, respectively. Martin tallied 171.25 to sneak in front of France’s Romain Allemand and become the second-youngest U.S. snowboarder to win a world championship medal after Arielle Gold, who won halfpipe gold in 2013.
“It feels amazing to walk away from my first World Championships with two medals,” Martin told U.S. Ski and Snowboard media liaison Sadie Texer. “I can’t imagine it going any better.”
Martin, a Youth Olympic Games big air silver medalist in 2024, made his World Cup debut this September, placing 49th in the slopestyle in Cardrona, New Zealand. He was outside the top 30 in the big air competitions in Chur, Switzerland on Oct. 19 and Beijing, China on Dec. 1 before placing 10th in the event in Klagenfurt, Austria on Jan. 5. He placed fourth in the Aspen Grand Prix big air at the beginning of February and then won his first World Cup in Calgary on Feb. 22 — his seventh-career start.
On Friday, Kimata started his gold-medal effort with an 81.75-point frontside 1800 double tail grab. The 22-year-old received medical attention at the base of the hill after a rough crash on his second run. The Japanese star went back to the top, however, and nailed the 1980 melon on his second try to earn 95.00 points, the highest score of the night.
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Martin landed a frontside 1800 and a backside 1800 on his first two jumps, but the respective 77.50 and 83.25 scores only put him in fourth going into his third and final run. The 16-year-old decided to improve his frontside 1800, notching an 88.50 to claim the bronze.
“It went really well,” Martin said. “I played it safe and decided not to go for anything too big, but it paid off and I snuck onto the podium.”
Martin was the only American to make the final as Sean Fitzsimons and Dusty Henricksen wound up 18th and 43rd, respectively.
