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Knee-Gate | The Snowboarding World Weighs In On Olympics Controversy

After one of the most contentious results in snowboarding history, here's what social media has to say

Max Parrot just bested a very stacked field of riders to take the top spot in the men’s Olympic Slopestyle final after putting down a helluva run to receive a score of 90.96. Only one problem though- he missed a grab at a crucial moment and wasn’t scored down for it in one of the most controversial judging oversights in the history of snowboarding.

Click here to read our exclusive interview with Olympic Head Snowboard Judge, Iztok Sumatik, who spoke to us about how events unfolded inside the judge’s box

There’s not much that can be said about the whole fiasco except ‘nope’. Slopestyle is already blurring the lines with Big Air, with judges favouring increasingly groan-inducing spins on the jump section rather than style, creativity and flow. Add #KneeGate into the mix and you’ve got one hell of a (shit)show.

This isn’t a dig at Max Parrot, he didn’t ask the judges to do this but regardless, this is bad for snowboarding. Mark and Su Yiming aren’t the only ones who took a beating today, China’s reputation as a surveillance state has been left in tatters after a technological failure that will go down in history a la Diego Maradona’s Hand Of God as one of the worst calls we’ll see in sport.

People are pissed at the results, possibly none more so (at least publicly) than Chris Grenier:

 

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A post shared by The Bomb Hole Podcast (@thebombhole)

Mat Crepel takes a different approach and instead of piling blame on the judges, he points the finger at the IOC for not providing adequate filming and production staff that actually understand snowboarding:

If you don’t laugh you’ll cry, right? Chas Truslow providing the comedic support as always:

 

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A post shared by Chas Truslow (@thecatfishchronicles)

After comparing the men’s final to “eating a salad for dinner” Todd Richards gives us a visual demonstration of a real grab. Can always count on Todd to tell it like it is:

 

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A post shared by Todd Richards (@btoddrichards)

Stan Leveille, editorial director of Slush Magazine, bringing the memes as per usual:

 

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A post shared by Stanley J. Leveille (@mysonstan)

Natural Selection COO and Co-Founder Liam Griffin took to his IG story to weight in from an event management point of view:

UK rider Jamie Nicholls throwing in his two cents on Twitter:

10/10 joke here…

 

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A post shared by ZzZzz (@snowboardingisdead)

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