Horgmo lands first triple in competition

Mark Kohlman/ESPN Action SportsNorway's Torstein Horgmo en route to his second Big Air gold.

The level that big air and slopestyle snowboarding is at right now is ridiculous. All of the top riders have double cork 1260s in their bag of tricks. When they're not feeling it, they throw double cork 10s. If you remember, it was only last year that Halldor Helgason came blasting out of nowhere and stole the Big Air show with the first-ever backside 12 double cork to be thrown at Winter X. Now you can't podium in any contest if you don't have one.

What Horgmo meant is that the triple he tried tonight was nowhere near as corked, stylish, and flawlessly landed as the one he did in June. And he was upset about it, because style matters to Horgmo, maybe even more than an X Games win. This may seem insane, but his triple actually scored lower (42 points) than silver medalist Sebastian Toutant's perfectly-executed backside 1260, which earned him 44. If Horgmo's second-highest score wasn't higher than Toutant's, he wouldn't have won tonight.

Let's repeat that: the level of snowboarding is so high right now, that there was a very strong possibility that Torstein Horgmo could have thrown the first triple to ever be landed in a snowboard contest, and the second triple ever to be landed in snowboarding, and ended up in second place tonight.

Last week we asked Sebastien Toutant, the 18-year-old upstart from Montreal who came into the event hot, with two huge big air wins already this season at the TTR Air & Style Beijing and FIS World Cup in Stockholm, if a competition came down to a 1440, a double cork 12, and a triple, which trick would deserve to win. He answered, "the triple," with no hesitation.

"I'm stoked for him," said Toutant, of Horgmo's win. "I got a front 10 double cork, which is a new trick for me, and I think is the most legitimate double cork you can do. I'm happy about it."

Asked if he was going to try a triple soon, bronze medalist Sage Kotsenburg answered, "No, not for a long time."

This is Horgmo's second gold in Big Air, and his third medal in the event in four years. He goes into Sunday's Slopestyle finals with two Dew Tour slopestyle wins under his belt, but also with a possible concussion from tonight's falls added to his already broken ribs.

Follow Melissa Larsen on Twitter: @melissalarsen