"Rebellion of an 18-Year-Old High School Snowboarder"...Yu Seungeun Wins Korea's First Women's Snow Event Bronze

171 Points in Olympic Big Air Final
Third Place Behind Murase and Sadowski-Synnott, New Chapter for Korean Snow Sports
Flawless Backside Triple Cork 1440 Performance

First appearance, first final, and even a first medal.

It is the uprising of an 18-year-old high school snowboarder. Yu Seungeun of Seongbok High School, dubbed the "rising star of Korean snowboarding," has made new history in the snow events. On the 9th (local time), she scored 171 points in the women's snowboard big air final at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, held at the Livigno Snowpark in Italy. She finished third behind Murase Kokomo of Japan with 179 points and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand with 172.25 points.

Yu Seungeun became the first Korean female athlete ever to win a medal in a snow event at the Olympic Games. Until this tournament, the only medal for Korean skiing and snowboarding had been the men's parallel giant slalom silver won by Lee Sangho of Nexen Winguard at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. For the first time, Korea has now claimed two medals in snow events at a single Olympics. Following the silver medal won by Kim Sangkyum of High1 in the men's snowboard parallel giant slalom the previous day, this is the Korean delegation's second medal of these Games.

Yu Seungeun is smiling brightly with a bronze medal around her neck at the women's snowboard big air medal ceremony at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Livigno (Italy) = Yonhap News

Yu Seungeun became the first Korean woman ever to compete in Olympic big air, reaching the final on her debut and hanging her first medal around her neck. At the Pyeongchang Games, Jung Jihye was selected to the national team but could not compete due to injury, and at the 2022 Beijing Games there were no Korean athletes in the event.

Big air, a freestyle snowboarding event, is contested on a 50-meter slope, roughly the height of a 15-story apartment building. Athletes speed down the slope and launch off a massive jump, with scores determined by a combination of jump, rotation, landing, and distance. It became an official Olympic event for the first time at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. All riders attempt tricks in three runs, and their ranking is decided by adding the scores from two runs after discarding the lowest one. However, if the jumps are performed in the same direction, only one of those scores is counted.

In her first run of the final, Yu Seungeun executed a perfect backside triple cork 1440 (a trick in which the rider grabs the front edge of the board, takes off with her back facing downhill, and spins 1440 degrees in the air). Her jump height reached 5.5 meters and the distance 29.2 meters. She stayed airborne for as long as 2.3 seconds. Her first-run score of 87.75 points put her in second place.

Yoo Seungeun is performing a flawless, high-difficulty trick in the women's snowboard big air final at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Livigno (Italy) = Yonhap News

In her second run, she performed a frontside triple cork 1440 (a trick in which the rider grabs the back edge of the board, takes off while facing downhill, and spins 1440 degrees in the air), earning 83.25 points. By the end of the second run she was leading the field, and a gold medal seemed within reach.

However, fortunes diverged in the third run. When Murase and Sadowski-Synnott posted high scores in their third runs and pushed her down to third place, she went all-in once more with another high-difficulty trick. She attempted the same frontside triple cork 1440 as in her second run, but failed to land it cleanly and was unable to earn a high score.