ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Jamie Anderson, a star of American competitive snowboarding, will try to win her third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the final of women’s slopestyle on Sunday. Anderson, a California native, won in 2014, slopestyle’s inaugural Olympic appearance, and again in 2018.
Now 31, she is a strong contender, although maybe not the favorite. New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, 20, beat Anderson two weeks ago at the X Games in Aspen, Colo., and hopes to avenge what she considers a major disappointment: a 13th-place finish at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, when she was just 16.
The final is stacked with elite global talent, though.