O’Neill team rider Sebastien Toutant, aka Seb Toots, added another Gold medal to his trophy cabinet today when he defeated his friend & fellow Canadian Mark McMorris to win the Men’s Slopestyle title at the X-Games, France.
Seb led after the first of three runs, in his second run he landed the first clean triple cork of the competition as well as super-smooth rail work to earn him a score of 95. He then had to watch as defending X-Games Aspen Gold medalist McMorris took a good shot at grabbing it back from him. McMorris came extremely close with a score of 94 for a run that included a Cab 1260 double cork and a backside triple cork. But it wasn’t enough to knock Seb off of first place, making him the second person in snowboard Slopestyle history to win two X-Games Gold medals (the other being Shaun White). Third place went to Peetu Piiroinen from Finland. Torstein Horgmo, the top qualifier from Thursday’s elimination round, fell in Run 2 and injured his ankle and couldn’t make a third run.
“It wasn’t my best season so far but I’m stoked to end up with a win here in France, stoked my backside triple cork worked out today, and stoked to ride with all my friends,” Toutant said.
The Gold will be a big boost for Seb who is currently in training for Sochi, Russia where Snowboard Slopestyle will make its Winter Olympics debut in 2014.
Seb won his first X Games Gold in Aspen in 2011 and a Silver in Tignes in the same year when he was just a rookie.
