South Lake Tahoe's Kyle Smaine wins first World Championship

South Tahoe High graduate, Kyle Smaine made his first appearance at world championships count on Thursday night by winning the gold for men's halfpipe in Austria. The 23-year old won the 2015 FIS Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships with a Left-side 1260 tail; Right-side 1080 tail; Switch 720 opposite safety; Right-side 900 high mute; Right-side 900 truck driver.

He skies for Sierra at Tahoe, just as do Olympians Maddie Bowman, Jamie Anderson and Hannah Teter.

Smaine led the competition from start to finish, earning the top spot in Wednesday’s qualifiers and putting down an unbeatable first run in Thursday night’s finals that would ultimately earn him the gold.

While Smaine was the obvious winner on the night, silver medalist Joffrey Pollet-Villard of France took home the honor of crowd favorite with huge amplitude and an alley-oop flat 540. Bronze went to Switzerland’s Yannic Lerjen who bumped Broby Leeds (Vail, CO) off the podium on his third and final run.

Besides first, Americans ended up in fourth, fifth and twelfth.