Cardrona snowboarder Christy Prior has doubled New Zealand’s medal tally at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado after snaring a women’s slopestyle bronze.
Winter Olympian Prior tasted immediate success in her first X Games appearance, adding to the silver won by Paralympian Carl Murphy in the adaptive snowboard cross event on Saturday.
After struggling through her first two runs, Prior’s scoring run came at the third and final attempt, lodging 89.33 points.
That left her behind Norwegian winner Silje Norendal (93.66) and nine-time X Games medallist Jamie Anderson of the United States (91.33).
Prior endured a nervous wait to see if fourth-placed Spencer O’Brien would surpass her and could celebrate when the Canadian crashed on her final run.
“I’m speechless, it’s hard to comprehend right now,” she said.
“I’m here at X Games as a rookie and to win a medal is a really special thing.”
British-born Prior, 26, qualified for the semi-finals of the same event at last year’s Olympics in Sochi but was forced to pull out following a crash in practice.
