By USSA

OSLO, Norway – It was an American sweep for the men at X Games Oslo Sunday night with Torin Yater-Wallace (Basalt, Colo.) making a triumphant return to the top of the X Games halfpipe podium, followed by good friend Alex Ferreira (Aspen, Colo.) in the silver-medal position and Gus Kenworthy (Telluride, Colo.) in bronze. Maddie Bowman (Meyers) led for the women with a silver medal.

Bowman, who won gold in halfpipe last month in Aspen, used three versions of the 900 (though not on her highest-scoring run) to earn the silver medal. It was her seventh overall X Games medal. Bowman, who also won Olympic gold at Sochi in 2014, said, “I just came out and gave it everything I had. I had a good night and I was happy to get three nines in there.”

Brita Sigourney (Carmel) finished fifth for the ladies. Devin Logan (West Dover, Vt.) was sixth and Annalisa Drew (Andover, MA) was eighth.

It has been a long trek for Yater-Wallace, widely considered one of the greatest talents of his sport, since he won gold at X Games Tignes in 2013. A series of injuries have kept him sidelined at times throughout the past several years, but it was his recent battle with a life-threatening case of Streptococcus that was the most serious. “It was a hard start to the season,” Yater-Wallace said. “I had to deal with some illnesses, but I’ve been on skis as much as I can and been enjoying time at home riding in Aspen.” Cleared to ski again in January, the Aspen native proved that he was ready to return to the top of the international ranks with a performance in Oslo that featured enormous amplitude and culminated with an alley-oop double flatspin 1080—the trick of the night.

“I don’t even have the words,” Yater-Wallace said of the win. “It’s just an amazing night. I’ve been wanting to do that alley-oop double flatspin in a contest for a while now and it was finally the right pipe. It’s unreal to have three Colorado boys on the podium: Alex, one of my best friends and Gus. We all grew up skiing together so this is pretty unreal.”

More than half of the 20-man field at X Games Oslo was comprised of American skiers: David Wise (Reno) was fourth, Aaron Blunck (Crested Butte, Colo.) seventh, Kyle Smaine (South Lake Tahoe) eighth, Taylor Seaton (Avon, Colo.) ninth, Broby Leeds (Vail, Colo.) 10th, Jacob Beebe (Bend, Ore.) 12th, Lennon Vaughan (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) 13th, Jaxin Hoerter (Breckenridge, Colo.) 16th, Lyman Currier (Boulder, Colo.) 18th and Birk Irving (Winter Park, Colo.) 19th.