The first gold medal of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics has been won by 20-year-old Sage Kotsenburg of Park City, Utah in the men's slopestyle event on Saturday at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. The first run final score was 93.50 points.

Staale Sandbech of Norway won silver and Mark McMorris of Canada took bronze. McMorris was the favorite to win before he broke a rib at the X Games in January. Still, he reached the final and scored 88.75 in his second run.

This year's winter Olympics was the debut of this event. "Slopestyle was brought into the Games to try to help attract a younger demographic, and there could not have been a better advertisement for the sport than the first final. The fans in the stands danced to pumping rock music as the competitors performed their tricks on rails and over jumps against a backdrop of snowcapped mountains and the brightest of blue skies," ABC reports.

"There had been concerns that the withdrawal of America's Shaun White might devalue the maiden event, but the biggest name in snowboarding, and the safety concerns that caused him to pull out of the event, were a distant memory on Saturday."

Kotsenburg, Chas Guldemond and Ryan Stassel were the medal hopes for the United States but only Kotsenburg made it out of the semifinals.

"I really want to medal just as much as the next guy, but my attitude in the run, if I land, that's cool," he said. "If not, I need to try harder obviously. That's just how I snowboard."

He also said that his parents were watching from home because they were too afraid to come to Russia. "I'm super mellow, laid-back. I'm not like the normal guy that goes in the gym and trains. I haven't been in the gym since September."