Ayumu Hirano of Japan is a favorite heading into the finals and a snowboarder to watch in the race for gold after taking silver in the men’s halfpipe at the last two Winter Olympics.
Hirano, 23, is the captain of a dominant Japanese team that includes Kaishu, his younger brother. On Friday, all four Japanese athletes qualified for the men’s final.
Hirano made history by landing the first triple cork — three flips performed in a rotation while grabbing the board — at a sanctioned event during the 2021 Dew Tour at Copper Mountain, Colorado, and then again at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado, this past January. (He still hasn’t landed it or completed a run.)
Hirano, whose first name means “walk on a dream,” was a prodigy snowboarder long before that. His father, who owns a surf shop and a skate park in their hometown of Murakami, on the west coast of Japan’s largest island, Honshu, introduced him to the sport when he was around four years old. Eiju, his older brother, was a snowboarding competitor who also competed in extreme sports. “If my father and older brother hadn’t started skateboarding or snowboarding, I wouldn’t be here,” he said.
At the 2011 Burton U.S. Open in Vermont, Hirano sneaked in a ride between judged runs of the men’s halfpipe competition, where he won the junior division. “If you poach the US Open Halfpipe Finals, you must follow the one unwritten rule,” Burton Snowboard wrote on Facebook. Make a big splash. Ayumu Hirano, 12, follows the rules to a tee.”
Hirano won silver at the Winter X Games in Aspen when he was 14, finishing behind Shaun White, who was 26 at the time.
In a December 2013 interview with Sports Illustrated, Hirano said, “When I’m in competition, I don’t care about other riders.” “I concentrate on myself.” It makes no difference who else is on board.”
His dedication has paid off. Hirano, who spent part of his adolescence training in both the United States and Japan, has established himself as one of, if not the best, halfpipe riders in the world, winning World Championship titles, X Games gold medals, and Olympic podium spots.
Hirano is competing in his second Olympic Games in less than a year. He competed in the men’s skateboard park competition at the Tokyo Olympics last summer, but did not make it to the finals.
