For a brief moment on Thursday night, social media was ready to throw down in support of the snowboarder Ayumu Hirano of Japan. On his second run, Hirano became the first competitor in an Olympic Games to land a triple cork — three flips performed on a rotation while grabbing the board — as part of what the NBC analystTodd Richards called “the best run that’s ever been done in the halfpipe.”
But the judges gave Hirano a score of 91.75, a hair behind the one given to Scotty James of Australia, who sat in first place with a score of 92.