Japan wins another snowboard medal on the night big air queen Anna Gasser says goodbye

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — On a frosty night in the Italian Alps, the queen of big air, Anna Gasser, bid adieu to her favorite Olympic event.

She left without a medal, but that didn't make it all bad. The snowboarders who won them — led by the new queen, Kokomo Murase of Japan — all knew they had Gasser to thank for pushing the envelope to help the sport look as good as it did Monday night.

“I’m happy to pass on the crown, the big crown, to Kokomo," said Gasser, who finished eighth. “She really deserves it and, yeah, it's crazy to see how far the sport has come in the last years.”

Kokomo, silver medalist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and third-place finisher Seung-eun Yu all got to the podium with triple-cork, 1440-degree jumps — that's three head-over-heels flips with another rotation mixed in. Those weren't around in women's big air at the last Olympics, where Gasser won her second straight gold medal.

“Progression," a term snowboarders have co-opted over their 30-plus years in business, looked like this in the women's final:

—The three medalists combined for five triple corks out of the six jumps that counted toward their scores.

—British 19-year-old Mia Brookes, who got the 1440 trend going three years ago, tried a 1620 this time. It has only been landed once in a competition, and she landed it this time but skidded an extra half revolution in the snow after her landing, which cut down on her score.

“I can definitely go home saying I gave it everything,” said Brookes, who finished fourth.

—Gasser, knowing the jumps she used to win four years ago would only be good for fifth or sixth in this one, opened her night with a 1440 that she didn't land. She tried another one — also a miss. She had no regrets.

“I knew today was a day to go all-in with the tricks, so I'm not blaming myself,” she said. “I left everything out there.”

Loving all this from the crowd was Donna Carpenter, the owner of the snowboard company, Burton. Her late husband, Jake Burton Carpenter, turned that snowboard into a sport, and the name “Burton” was plastered on the bottom of more than half the 12 boards used in this contest.

“The most progressive contest I've ever seen,” Carpenter said. “It was incredible. Jake would've been happy with tonight.”

Virtually every big day in an Olympic snow park is a tribute to Burton Carpenter. This one felt a bit like a tribute to the 34-year-old Gasser, too.

Back in 2013, she was the first woman to land a trick called a Cab Double Cork 900.

Six years later, she added another revolution and became the first woman to do that, as well. She used that trick in China four years ago to get the gold. Always one of the highest jumpers in the game, she has amassed two world championships and a couple Winter X titles to go with her Olympic championships.

In maybe the most telling sign of how big she is in her sport, she made a recent cover of her home-country's “Ski Austria” magazine — a near miracle in a land that loves skis and took decades to begrudgingly accept its younger cousin, the snowboard.

“She broke through that ski culture there,” Carpenter said. “A beautiful person and a beautiful competitor.”

Another glimpse of this sport's future came in yet another sign of Japan's ever-growing dominance in this sport, even away from the halfpipe that used to be its primary domain. Kokomo's win gives Japan three big air medals after its men won two on Saturday.

The reason “we can achieve so much is because we love this sport so much, and I think that is really our strength,” Kokomo said.

She'll be back on the mountain next Monday for slopestyle. Gasser will be there, too, for a few more big jumps in a game she helped shape for the better part of the last 15 years.

“I was so inspired by her snowboarding,” said Sadowski-Synnott, who now has four Olympic medals spread across slopestyle and and big air. "I feel she had led the forefront of women’s snowboard progress, and if I could name the one person who has had the biggest impact on snowboarding, it would be Anna Gasser.”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Gold medalist Japan's Kokomo Murase celebrates winning the women's snowboarding big air finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Austria's Anna Gasser competes during the women's snowboarding big air finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Austria's Anna Gasser reacts during the women's snowboarding big air finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Gold medalist Japan's Kokomo Murase celebrates winning the women's snowboarding big air finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

From left, silver medalist New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, gold medalist Japan's Kokomo Murase and bronze medalist South Korea's Yu Seung-eun hold their medals after the women's snowboarding big air finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Britain's Mia Brookes reacts during the women's snowboarding big air finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Japan's Kokomo Murase competes during the women's snowboarding big air finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Japan's Kokomo Murase competes during the women's snowboarding big air finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Japan's Kokomo Murase reacts during the women's snowboarding big air finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A former student opened fire at a high school in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday, wounding at least 16 people, before killing himself, an official said.

The 18-year-old attacker fired randomly inside a vocational high school in Siverek, Sanliurfa province. He later killed himself with the same shotgun after being “cornered by police,” Gov. Hasan Sildak said.

The attack wounded 10 students, four teachers, a canteen employee and a police officer, Sildak said. While most of them were being treated in Siverek, five of the teachers and students were transferred to a hospital in the provincial capital because their conditions were more serious, the governor said.

The motive for the attack was unclear. School shootings are rare in Turkey.

The attacker did not have a criminal record, Sildak said. The school had been declared safe and no permanent police officer was assigned to protect it, he added, calling the shooting an “isolated incident.”

NTV television and other media reports said the assailant had threatened an attack on the school on social media prior to the shooting.

One student told the state-run Anadolu Agency that he and a friend jumped out of their classroom window to flee the attacker.

“He suddenly entered the classroom and fired. He fired four or five times. Two people were hit. He then went into the next classroom,” Anadolu quoted Omer Furkan Sayar as saying. “We first threw ourselves to the ground and then two of us jumped out of the window.”

Sayar continued: “He didn't say anything, he entered and started to shoot directly.”

Earlier, media reports said all students were evacuated and police special operations units were deployed after the assailant refused to surrender.

“The individual was cornered inside the building through police intervention and died after shooting himself," Sildak told reporters, adding that a “comprehensive” investigation into the shooting would be carried out.

Video footage showed dozens of students running out of the school toward the gate and onto the street.

Turkish security forces and emergency staff stand at the courtyard of a high school where an assailant opened fire, in Siverek, south east Turkey, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, (Mevlut Bayraktar/IHA via AP)