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Jamie Anderson repeats as Olympic champion by not risking it all

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competes in the Snowboard Ladies’ Slopestyle Final on day three of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Phoenix Snow Park on February 12, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea.

Cameron Spencer

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Jamie Anderson struggled for months to add the difficult tricks needed to contend with the women who had started to beat her. She repeated as Olympic champion because she chose not to attempt one of those tricks.

Anderson’s gold medal on a wind-wrecked day was won in one moment in her 83-point first run.

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After a strong rails section and a backside 540, Anderson geared up for the second jump, where many of the 25 women who dropped before her crashed.

The wind gusts blew snow up from the finish corral, creating a dust-storm effect. Some riders criticized officials for not postponing the contest to another day (the women’s Alpine skiing giant slalom was postponed earlier). There was a 75-minute delay before the first run.

Read the rest of the story and watch Anderson’s gold medal run here