Did American Alessandro Barbieri make the podium in the men’s snowboard halfpipe competition?

MILAN, Metropolitan City of Milan — Three United States athletes competed in the men’s snowboard halfpipe competition Friday, but the event was expected to be a battle between Australian Scottie James and defending Olympic champion from Japan, Ayumu Hirano.  

Hirano was coming off a devastating fall where he broke his nose and injured his leg.

Seventeen-year-old American Alessandro Barbieri, whose nickname is “The Chef” for his unique style inspired by his Italian roots, was joined on the halfpipe by teammates Chase Josey and Jake Pates, who barely made the finals, qualifying eleventh and twelfth, respectively.

Australian Scotty James qualified first while rival Ayumu Hirano was seventh.

Totsuka earned gold with 95 points, James earned silver with 93.50 points and Japan’s Ryusei Yamada earned bronze with 92 points. 

Jake Pates was leading with a dominant 77.50 in the first run, until a trio of Japanese snowboarders pushed him off of the podium positions. He failed to improve with his second and third runs after a fall ended it early, leaving his best score from run 1.  He ended up in 8th place. 

Despite some awkward landings on a few of his jumps in his first run, Alessandro Barbieri managed a respectable 75.00. His second run ended prematurely with a slip after attempting to land a trick. His third run ended after another slip while trying to land a switch backside. He finished 10th.  

Chase Josey’s first run ended prematurely with a crash. His second run ended much better and earned him a 70.25, which he couldn’t improve on in his third run. He finished in 11th place.  

Totsuka scored an impressive 95 and performed one of the “best runs” in the sport, according to the NBC commentators. Last year, he landed in 11th place. Ayumu Hirano, who won gold last year, ended up in 7th place. 

Barbieri, whose parents are from Milan, has been seen on two World Cup podiums in the past two seasons. His style has gained lots of fans in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics.

“The French people are going to hate me, but Italy is the king of style. And I feel like I take the Italian flair from my parents and put it into snowboarding,” Barbieri told Olympics.com in an interview. “I try to add more flavor into my tricks with different grabs, different combos.”

Barbieri, who is from Oregon, also highlighted how his Italian heritage has inspired his style.

“I see the sport like an art. It’s kind of like food. You have to be different, and every culture has a different flavor. And for me, with my Italian heritage, my flavor of riding is different from the Japanese or everyone else,” the Team USA prodigy told Olympics.com.

He made his World Cup debut at 15 in 2023. He won silver in the halfpipe event at the Gangwon 2024 Youth Winter Olympic Games.

The young Olympian spends his summer competing as a kitesurfer, saying it is perfect preparation for snowboarding, according to Olympics.com.

“I enjoy the flying. It’s uncontrollable, and sometimes you’ll get this magic gust and go up 80 or 90 feet, and it’s like pure adrenaline. And it definitely helps with building my courage. Because if I am used to going up 60 feet in kitesurfing, when I go back to the snow and I want to go 20 feet, it feels like nothing,” he told Olympics.com. “And all these extreme moves like kite-looping, taking the board off, flicking it in the air is keeping your core and your whole body engaged. So it’s also amazing off-season training for halfpipe.”

The snowboard halfpipe is a high-flying Winter Olympics event where athletes perform tricks while riding back and forth in a 22-foot tall U-shaped tube.

Each rider is given three runs down the halfpipe and they will receive a score that is based on amplitude, difficulty and variety of tricks with most participants landing five to six tricks per run.

The riders will keep their highest score of the three runs and whoever has the highest score after each rider performs three runs wins.