Ayumu Hirano deserved the gold medal twice over in the men’s halfpipe at the Beijing Olympics after earning a perplexingly low score on his second run.
On Friday in Beijing, in the final of the men’s halfpipe, two-time Olympic silver medalist Hirano was vying for his first gold in the event. Hirano was trailing Australian Scotty James’s score of 92.50 heading into his second run, and it seemed as if the Japanese snowboarder put down an all-timer of a run after pulling off a triple cork 1440.
The run seemed to be pretty clean by the eye test, but instead of a huge score, Hirano was only given a 91.75, putting him squarely in second place. The score drew the ire of NBC broadcaster — and former snowboarder himself — Todd Richards, who had an epic rant live on air trashing the judges’ credibility.
WTF you judges just grenade’d all credibility.
— toddrichards (@btoddrichards) February 11, 2022
"This is going to end up being Triple-Gate" (refers to Hirano's first trick, which he's the only person who's landed it in competition, yes?)
— Jessica Luther (@jessicawluther) February 11, 2022
The crowd in Beijing too was not pleased with the judges’ scoring.
Hirano’s run moves him to second, drawing boos from the crowd.
With one run to go, it’s 1. Scotty James, 2. Ayumu Hirano, 3. Jan Scherrer, 4. Shaun White, 5. Taylor Gold
— Rachel Axon (@RachelAxon) February 11, 2022
Thankfully, for everyone involved, Hirano had an even better run on his third attempt, a run which won him gold after he nailed two triple corks for a score of 96.00.
REDEMPTION FOR AYUMU HIRANO!
After winning silver in 2014 and 2018, Hirano wins gold with an EPIC final run! #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/zgZRiRwOja
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 11, 2022
Richards also was relieved at the justice given to Hirano after such an incredible sequence of events.
YES. Unreal competition.
— toddrichards (@btoddrichards) February 11, 2022
Good for Hirano, who absolutely stuck it to the judges with that last run, and won gold in the process! You can’t ask for a better ending than that.
