Livigno, Italy, 8 February 2026 (dpa/MIA) - Kira Kimura stunned the top favourites to lead a Japanese one-two and claim men's snowboarding big air gold on Saturday at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics.

Kimura scored a total of 179.50 points to finish ahead of team-mate and world champion Ryoma Kimata by eight points.

Bronze went to 2022 Beijing Olympic champion Su Yiming of China.

"I've devoted a lot of time to snowboarding this year. My family, coach and everyone around me gave me tremendous support, so I'm truly delighted to have achieved this result and prove the doubters wrong," Kimura said.

Australia's Valentino Guseli was trying to write an Olympic fairytale after being a last-minute addition, but he was only 10th.

He made it to the final round after replacing Canada's Mark McMorris, who crashed. Guseli had a good second jump after a faltering landing on the first one. But a fall in the last jump ended any medal hope.

In open air, snowboarders ride down a ramp and lunge into the air to do manoeuvres. They have three jumps and the two highest scores count for the final ranking.

Photo: epa