Oldham picks up silver, Blouin claims bronze on opening day of X Games

ASPEN, Colo. — Megan Oldham took silver in the women’s ski big air and fellow Canadian Laurie Blouin earned a bronze in women’s slopestyle snowboard as the 2021 Aspen X Games opened Friday.

Oldham, from Newmarket, Ont., landed a clean switch 1080 on her final run to cement her hold on second place, but it wasn’t enough to catch Swiss skier Mathilde Gremaud.

Eileen Gu of China finished third.

Oldham picked up her second career X Games medal after winning gold in big air last year in Oslo.

Blouin, from Stoneham, Que., picked up the third X Games medal of her career, all coming at Aspen. She won gold in big air in 2019, and silver in slopestyle in 2020.

Jamie Anderson of the United States finished first, followed by New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.

Canadians Cassie Sharpe and Rachael Karker reached the podium in women’s ski superpipe, grabbing silver and bronze respectively.

Sharpe, from Comox, B.C., has earned two bronze medals, a gold and a silver since 2018 in Aspen’s ski superpipe event. 

Karker, from Erin, Ont., took silver in Aspen last year and bronze in 2019.

China’s Gu won the event for her second medal of the day.

The Canadian men didn’t have as much luck Friday in the ski superpipe, with Brendan MacKay finishing fourth and Noah Bowman placing eighth.

New Zealand’s Nico Porteous won gold, while Americans Aaron Blunck (silver) and Birk Irving (bronze) rounded out the top three.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2021.

The Canadian Press