Former ski racer Smaine wins halfpipe gold at World Champs

South Lake Tahoe’s Kyle Smaine has two different FIS biographies for a very good reason. The former ski racer, who grew up ripping through courses all over the West, transitioned to competing in halfpipe, slopestyle, and ski cross in the spring of 2008 and hasn’t looked back since.

In Kreischberg, Austria, on Thursday, the now 23-year-old Smaine dominated the halfpipe competition to earn his first World Championships title. Smaine led the competition from start to finish, earning the top spot in Wednesday’s qualifiers and putting down an unbeatable first run in the night final that would ultimately earn him the gold. While Smaine was the obvious winner on the night, silver medalist Joffrey Pollet-Villard of France took home the honor of crowd favorite with huge amplitude and an alley-oop flat 540. Bronze went to Switzerland’s Yannic Lerjen who bumped Vail’s Broby Leeds off the podium on his third and final run.

“Qualified first for finals at World Championships! Stoked to ski under the lights again tomorrow!” the always enthusiastic Smaine posted on Facebook prior to Thursday. He followed it up with an appropriate declaration, “So happy to be the 2015 World Champion.”