Kokomo Murase is ready to make more history at X Games Aspen 2025. Ready to defend her gold medals in Snowboard Big Air and Knuckle Huck. Ready to upgrade her Aspen 2025 Slopestyle silver and become the first woman with three gold at a single X Games.
But first she’s planning to take a brief pause. The week before X Games, she’ll don a traditional long-sleeved furisode winter kimono for the Seijin-shiki ceremony to commemorate Seijin-no-hi, the Japanese Coming-of-Age Day.
“In Japan, you’re considered an adult at age 20,” says Kokomo, who turned 20 in November. “It’s an important rite of passage to the next stage of your life. You reflect on some of the magic of your childhood and the things you’ll take with you into adulthood.”
What Kokomo accomplished as a teen at X Games was magical: She earned nine medals (3 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze), beginning with her gold medal Big Air debut at X Games Norway 2018. Then just 13, she became the first woman to land a double cork 1260 in a contest (and on a sketchy scaffolding setup, too). The victory made her the youngest medalist in an X Games winter discipline, a mark she still holds nearly seven years later.
“Getting invited to X Games at age 13 to show off my new trick changed the trajectory of my life completely,” she says, with a translation assist from her agent Miles Atkinson. “It’s hard to believe it’s been seven years!”
Kokomo bookended her teenage years with a gold medal in Big Air on the last night of X Games Aspen 2024. The then 19-year-old became the first woman to land a backside triple cork 1440 at X Games and landed a first-in-women’s-competition frontside triple cork 1440 — two more records to her name. She nearly landed a backside triple cork 1620 on her victory lap, a sign of where she’s going.
“I’m really happy to be part of this evolution that’s happening in women’s snowboarding,” Kokomo says. “I like to be the first to land a trick and to change continuously.”
Murase’s nine X Games medals are tied for the 3rd-most collected by a teen. Skateboarder Gui Khury now owns 11, one more than skier Kelly Sildaru. You may have heard of the other athletes with nine XG medals before turning 20: Shaun White and Nyjah Huston.
“X Games fans have seen what I was capable of as a teenager,” Murase says. “Now that I’m an adult, I’m eager to show the next phase of my maturity as a snowboarder.”
Categories: News & updates
Colin Bane 