Japanese snowboarder Yuto Totsuka outdueled two-time defending gold medalist Scotty James for his first X Games Aspen gold medal on Sunday night in the men's snowboard superpipe contest at Aspen, Colorado.
The 19-year-old Totsuka had finished runner-up to Australia's snowboarding wonder boy James the past two years at X Games Aspen but came through with a massive third run to jump from third to first.
X Games rookie Ruka Hirano, a fellow Japanese rider and an 18-year-old, took bronze.
American Shaun White withdrew citing a knee injury from what was supposed to be his return to the Winter X Games. The three-time Olympic champion and 23-time X Games medalist has not competed since the 2018 Winter Olympics.
In the women's snowboard big air, Japan's Miyabi Onitsuka had a big cab 12 on her first jump of the day for a 47, the highest single trick score in the competition, but she finished second.
Jamie Anderson of the United States won her second gold of this year's X Games. New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott placed third.
