Red Gerard Lands First U.S. Gold of 2018 Winter Olympics

The U.S. Olympic team is officially on the medal board, thanks to a 17-year-old on a snowboard.

Red Gerard landed the gold in the snowboarding slopestyle event, and in the process gave the American team its first medal at the 2018 Winter Games. And he did it in dramatic fashion after entering the third and final run in 11th place.

Gold medalist Redmond Gerard of the United States poses on the podium during the Medal Ceremony for the Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle on day two of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Medal Plaza on February 11, 2018, in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

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That’s when, in the words of Sports Illustrated, he started “pulling off the run of his young life, which included nailing a backside triple cork 1440.”

Gerard, from Westlake, Ohio, became the youngest ever snowboarder to win a snowboarding medal at the Olympics. A pair of Canadians, Max Parrot and Mark McMorris, took home the silver and bronze respectively.