She's the First American Medalist at Beijing Games

Snowboarder Julia Marino has won America's first medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Marino took the silver in slopestyle snowboarding, reports USA Today. "There's so much emotions," the 24-year-old from Westport, Connecticut, said afterward, per ESPN. "It's pure excitement and happiness." (Watch her run here.) Two-time defending champion Jamie Anderson, 31 and also from Team USA, did not win a medal of any kind in the event, a surprise. Instead, the gold went to New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott—her nation's first gold medal at any Winter Olympics—and the bronze went to Australian Tess Coady.

Sadowski-Synnott is "the one that’s taking the sport to the next level, and I’m just happy to be a part of it and be there with her throughout the whole thing, honestly,” said Marino. “She’s an amazing rider and an inspiration to all of us, so to share the podium with her means the world to me.” She and Coady tackled the gold medalist at the completion of her winning run in celebration. For aficionados of the sport, USA Today notes that all three women all landed "a double cork 1080, or two off-axis flips with three rotations." Marino finished 11th at the last Games, and this is her first-ever medal. (More 2022 Beijing Olympics stories.)