There are few sports as evocatively named as the snowboard event known as Big Air. It’s big. It’s in the air. High, high in the air. On Saturday, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Kira Kimura of Japan won the men’s Big Air competition at the Livigno Snow Park in Valtellina, Italy. His best run was his third, a switch backside 1980 weddle – five and a half full horizontal rotations.
“It was truly impressive. Flawless execution, grabbed the whole way around and landed like he was doing a straight air, essentially,” said Rick Bower, program director for the U.S. Snowboard Team.
For good measure, Kimura also completed a backside 1980 melon, using a different sort of board grab. (The results are determined by the best two of three jumps.)
Snowboarding: Men’s Big Air Final
Kimura, 21, missed last season with an ankle injury. But he had two second place finishes in three World Cup events this season to position himself for Saturday’s gold.
Kimura’s first run: backside 1980 melon
Big Air snowboarders have improved drastically since the event debuted at the 2018 Olympics. That year, Sebastien Toutant won by completing two 1620s, or four and a half horizontal rotations.
By 2022, when the teenager Su Yiming of China won the gold, he needed to complete two 1800s, or five full horizontal rotations, to win. At the Milan-Cortina Games, Kimura increased the difficulty, executing two 1980s.
Big Air’s progression
The gold medalist in snowboarding Big Air spun horizontally a half rotation more in the air than the winner at the 2022 Beijing Games.
Today, leaps of that kind would not get you on the podium. The silver medalist, Ryoma Kimata of Japan, and the bronze medalist, the defending champion Yiming, completed two 1980s each on Saturday.
