And the first medalist of the United States in 2022 is…..JULIA MARINO with a silver medal in snowboarding slopestyle. You can watch the full replay here.
The crazy part is that of the 3 American women in this competition Julia was the least talked about. Jamie Anderson was the twice reigning champ and an obvious medal frontrunner. The third American, Hailey Langland, was attempting a redemption story after a disappointing 2018 Olympics and is dating men’s slopestyle’s reigning gold medalist Red Gerard.
But Julia had an amazing second run of three and is bringing home the hardware and has the exciting honor of being the first medalist for the United States in the 2022 Olympics!
This is incredibly fitting because the US ladies brought home more medals than the US men in 2018 for the first time in 20 years (which has long been the trend in the summer Olympics).
Also, the gold medalist, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott from New Zealand, won her country’s first Winter Olympic gold medal EVER. An exciting and rewarding contest all around.
Royer's Olympic Blog 