Wow what a weekend of shred spectating with X Games coverage filling our evening hours and turning us slightly nocturnal! With the riders already having qualified for the big O, it felt like an element of pressure was off and it was time to put the pressure on! So the road to Sochi has hotted up, here’s what went down at the final slopestyle stop before the Olympics..

Words by Hannah Bailey

It was slopestyle Saturday as the ladies took to the course in the afternoon for the hotly contested final. Keeping some of the favourites away from their usual medal colour, Nifty Norwegian, Silje Norendal claimed her second consecutive X Games Gold. Throwing down a more than impressive final run; a backside 270 out on the first rail, a frontside seven rodeo, back five, cab seven, switch backside five. Phwoar, incredible! It all came down to the final run and ladies to beat, Jamie Anderson and Spencer O’Brien, couldn’t quite stomp the jumps despite throwing some sick signature moves, such as O’Brien’s back-to-back sevens. Perhaps a surprise to some, it comes as no surprise to us that Silje won! The snowboard star who featured on a cover of ours back in 2007 has had to battle through ACL injury to get back to her full potential, but it was only a matter of time until her progression was back on track. With a healthy dose of steezy style and a confident mentality we could see this winner coming. Throwing tricks like she did yesterday in Aspen, Norendal has up-ed the standard of the girls scene and put herself as a favourite for the Olympic podium. A well deserved win for the Norwegian beauty who is a great ambassador for girls shred. Check out her Gold medal run:

Away from the podium there was some flipping good manoeuvres to note from the finals. Anna Gasser who was attempting double backflips and Aimee Fuller‘s fun run consisting of a double backflip, underflip and another backflip to finish it all of. Okay, so maybe the ladies don’t have the big screen triple corks to show or the technicality on the rails that the bro’s have, but runs like Silje’s prove that progression is happening and runs like Aimee’s prove that girls are having fun doing it! Not forgetting what snowboarding is all about, we like a bit of both and can’t wait to see it again next week in Sochi. With all 8 of the ladies featured in Saturdays final off to the Olympics, it’s bound to be a spectacle of a snow show..our favourite.