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In her second run, Gasser performed a backside double cork 1080. Composite image by Bedel Saget and K.K. Rebecca Lai/The New York Times

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Anna Gasser stood at the top of the 160-foot ramp knowing she had already won at least a silver medal in the Olympics’ inaugural big air snowboarding competition.

She also knew that, to win gold, she’d have to nail her hardest trick, a cab double cork 1080. The American Jamie Anderson, who is Gasser’s chief rival and had beaten her earlier in the Games in the slopestyle event, was sitting in first place after two solid jumps.

After Gasser snapped her boots into the board, television cameras caught the slightest smirk before she pulled a scarf over her face and launched herself down the ramp. She was definitely going for gold.

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For her final run, Gasser performed a cab double cork 1080. Composite image by Bedel Saget and Jasmine C. Lee/The New York Times

Gasser flipped twice and spun three times before landing cleanly. Her gold-medal celebration began even before the judges put up her score of 96, the highest of the day.

“I wasn’t sure, should I keep it safe, should I just do that trick again and get a better score, or should I risk it?” Gasser said. “But I watched the girls and everyone was so good, so I was like, ‘O.K., I'm going to try to do this trick,’ and I was so happy when I landed it."

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Family and fans of Anna Gasser of Austria celebrate her win in the women's big air snowboarding final on Thursday. Hilary Swift for The New York Times

Anderson took an early lead by pulling a frontside 1080 on her first jump, good enough for a score of 90. Gasser played it safe in the first round, but got more aggressive in the second with a backside double cork 1080. She didn’t quite nail it, and was given a score of 89 for a two-run total of 174.5, meaning she would have to pull something big in the final run to catch Anderson, who had a score of 177.25.

Big air medals are determined by combining a snowboarder's top two scores from three runs.

Anderson, perhaps knowing that Gasser would go for big points on her final jump, went for a cab double cork 1080 — a trick she had been working on here in Korea — in the third round. She went a little too big and dropped the landing, however, opening the door for Gasser’s dramatic finish.

“I chose to kind of play it a little bit safe and put two down and then hope to land it on my third run, which unfortunately didn’t work out,” Anderson said.

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In her first run, Gasser performed a cab double cork 900. Composite image by Bedel Saget/The New York Times