FOZ DO IGUACU, BRAZIL (BDCi) — Brazilian Leticia Bufoni stepped up big in Women’s Skateboard Street at X Games Brazil to secure her first gold medal in a buzzer-beater over American Lacey Baker.
“I’m so f—ing happy,” the 20-year-old Brazilian, who hails from nearby Sao Paulo, said right after the win on Sunday, posting an 87.33. “I’m so stoked! I mean… I’m just so stoked.”
She also credited her move to California with helping her progress to her first gold medal. “There are a lot of skateparks [in California],” she said, “and here in Brazil, we don’t have a lot of skateparks.”
Swapping out previously landed standards for higher-scoring maneuvers, such as a lip slide down the big rail to close out her winning run, Bufoni edged past Baker, who held the lead for most of the 15-minute final jam session.
In other X Games news, Brazilian teenager Pedro Barros won his third X Games Skateboard Park gold medal in four years Saturday, in front of a raucous crowd.
Barros skated faster, higher and with a larger variety of tricks than anyone else in the field, as has become his trademark over the past few years. Upon clinching gold when silver medalist Rune Glifberg failed to earn the 44-point score that would have tied Barros, Barros grabbed a Brazilian flag and waved it in front of the packed bleachers, then draped it across his back.
“It’s amazing, it’s what I wanted,” he said. “At home, give this to the crowd.”
Source: espn.go.com