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“This past week has been the craziest week of my entire life!,’’ Marino wrote on Facebook. “Just being invited to the X Games is an honor in itself, but to come away with two medals is a dream!”
Marino, 19, became the first woman in 17 years to win two medals at the X Games with a gold medal in the Slopestyle competition. Marino also won a bronze in Thursday’s Big Air competition at the X Games, which were held at Buttermilk in Aspen, Colo.
In her winning run, Marino became the first woman to hit a cab double underflip. Marino hit the trick on her second run and posted a score of 94.66. Marino was ranked last among the elite field of eight riders heading into the final run. Her splendid run overtook snowboarding legend Jamie Anderson, who settled for silver.
““Oh my God, I am just so happy, it felt so smooth when I landed it!” said Marino about stomping the trick in a story on Transworld Snowboarding. “It honestly doesn’t feel like real life, I’m just on a cloud, I couldn’t ask for a better contest. This is a dream come true,” continued an emotional Marino.
Click here to watch Marino’s winning run.
The X Games are the most exclusive snowboarding competition in the world. Only eight riders are invited to compete. Marino was making her first appearance at the X Games.
““I came into X Games really excited to be a part of it,’’ Marino said in the Aspen Times. “I set goals for myself but definitely didn’t think I was going to come away with two medals,” Marino said. “It was definitely nerve-racking up there. Not landing my first run, I was like, ‘I got to put it down in the second run.’”
Marino is ranked third in the world in slopestyle and fifth in the world in Big Air. She started on the slopes as a 3-year-old on family trips to Vermont with her parents, Elaine and John. Marino was a soccer standout in the Westport Soccer Association and excelled in the sport for three years at St. Joseph High School in Trumbull before turning her focus to snowboarding.
She has skipped on to snowboarding’s fast track, and in a sport where reputation is so influential, figures to be a strong candidate to make the United States team for the Winter Olympics next year.
Prior to her X Games victory, Marino’s most significant accomplishment was a victory last February in a Big Air event at Fenway Park in Boston. She will compete this weekend at a U.S. Grand Prix event at Mammoth Mountain in California. The events will be televised. Click here for event and television information.
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