Carlos Garcia Knight has finished 10th in men’s Snowboard Big at the PyeongChang 2018 Games. The 20-year-old landed the highest score in qualifying rounds earlier in the week and came in to today’s competition with a plan to once again unleash the switch back 1660 which had impressed the judges. Unfortunately, the competition took a different turn.
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The competition format allowed each rider three jumps, with a competitor’s top two scores from two different tricks spun in different directions counting for their final score.
“For the first run I really wanted to do the switch back 16 again just because it would have been an awesome way to open things out and it’s more consistent for me,” explains Carlos. “Then the plan was to have two tries at the front triple 1440.
“Obviously things didn’t go to plan. I made a mistake on the call of the speed. It wasn’t so much the trick, the trick came around perfectly, I just went way too big on it.”
Carlos crashed out on his first landing and then again when he attempted the same trick on run two.
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“I thought I had it, but I went too big. It’s frustrating when it’s like that. I showed it twice the other day and I’m so gutted I couldn’t put it down today,” he said.
It is the second time Carlos has felt the disappointment of not being able to land a well-practiced trick on competition today, having come close to a podium finish in slopestyle but finishing in fifth place.
“It’s so tough,” said Carlos. “Slopestyle especially. I had a lot to give for that contest and the same here today. The toughest part is thinking if I’d landed those tricks what would have happened. But you can’t dwell on that, like anything in life, if you dwell on that stuff it’s unhealthy.”
Despite feeling huge disappointment at not finishing in the medals in PyeongChang, Carlos felt that it had motivated him to strive for future success.
“You’ve got to take the positives from it. Looking back, I’ve had a really awesome Olympics.
I’ve landed two of my personal best runs and even though finals didn’t work out today I think it’s a glimpse in to the future for what’s to come for me.
“The next year is going to be huge for competing. I think that people might see me as more of a threat to the podium and that’s always what I’ve been going for. Hopefully I can prove it unquestionably.
“I want to be one of the best in the sport.”
