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LIVIGNO — Canadian snowboarder Laurie Blouin took some solace in finishing fifth on a difficult day in women's slopestyle at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old from Quebec City, a two-time world champion (slopestyle in 2017 and big air in 2021) and slopestyle silver medallist at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, fell on her first two runs before landing her third run.
Changing conditions reduced the riders' speed on the Livigno Snow Park course, making jumps difficult on the day.
"Honestly it was a hard day for everyone," said Blouin. "The speed wasn't there … I'm just happy I landed a run. It was not the cleanest one. I had to adjust after my second jump on my third run, I was going so slow."
Japan's Mari Fukada won the gold, improving on her second run score of 85.70 with a third run of 87.83. Defending champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand moved into second with the final run of the day, scoring 87.48.
That knocked Japan's Kokomo Murase down to bronze at 85.80 and Germany's Annika Morgan off the podium at 78.78.
Murase won gold in big air earlier in the games while Sadowski-Synnott took silver.
Blouin's third-run score left her fifth at 68.60.
"At least it's not fourth, honestly. I've had too many fourths in my career," Blouin said with a giggle. "I'm just happy I had fun."
Blouin was fourth in Beijing four years ago. She has also placed fourth at the world championships (in big air in 2023) and at the Winter X Games (in slopestyle in 2025, and big air in 2021 and 2019).
Blouin says she has yet to decide whether she will be back for a fourth Olympics.
"I'm going to go year by year," she said. "I want to still keep competing because I love competing and I still have the tricks and my body feels good."
Blouin said she will choose what competitions to enter and also wants to continue making her own snowboarding videos.
"So I'm going to try to and balance everything," she said. "But I want to still compete. I'm not done."
Juliette Pelchat finished ninth. The 21-year-old from Whistler, B.C., in her first Olympics, had trouble with a rail on her first run and fell on her second before recording a final run score of 51.76.
"Honestly I had a lot of fun and I really tried my hardest to get speed. But that was definitely the biggest issue," said Pelchat.
In the earlier men's final, an emotional Mark McMorris fell on his third and final run in a bid to keep his run of Olympic medals going. The 32-year-old from Regina, who won bronze in Sochi, Pyeongchang and Beijing, finished eighth in the field of 12 after going down hard.
Cameron Spalding of Havelock, Ont., was 10th with Yiming Su winning to collect China's first gold of the games.
Pelchat's first run was a throwaway Wednesday as she fell coming off the rocket rail while Blouin missed the landing on her second jump.
Pelchat looked to have completed her second run but couldn't hold the landing on her third and final jump. Blouin also had issues, coming off a top rail early before failing to land her second jump.
Australian Ally Hickman crashed hard on her second run, hitting the snow face first after coming off the top rail. She kept competing and finished seventh.
Blouin had qualified ninth for the final with Pelchat 12th. Sadowski Synnott topped qualifying as she did four years ago in Beijing.
The 24-year-old Kiwi, who only returned to competition last month after being sidelined by bone bruising, earned her fifth Olympic medal, having also won big air bronze in 2018 in Pyeongchang and silver in big air in 2022 in Beijing.
Her slopestyle win in Beijing marked New Zealand's first-ever Winter Olympic gold medal.
Canada can take a small piece of the credit. According to the New Zealand Olympic team, a family Christmas holiday in Whistler, B.C., is Sadowski-Synnott's earliest memory of snow and "probably where her love of sliding began."
The 650-metre slopestyle course at Livigno Snow Park, which featured a vertical drop of 165 metres, features rail and jumps with riders judged on the breadth, originality, and quality of their tricks. Fifty percent of the marks come from the rails.
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