[juicebox gallery_id=”168″]

Lawrenceburg, Indiana’s own Nick Goepper skied his way to the top of the podium at Buttermilk Mountain today, securing an X Games three-peat in slopestyle; Goepper becomes the first to achieve this feat since Tanner Hall in 2004. Joining Goepper on the podium were Olympic champion and Park City, UT-native Joss Christensen, in second, and Quebec City’s Alex Bellemare, in third. Eight athletes competed, with three runs each to impress the judges.

Goepper, who had in fact not qualified for finals via Thursday’s qualifier (he missed the cut by one spot), was notified early this morning that he was a go for finals, the result of Alex Beaulieu-Marchand withdrawing on account of injury. Thus, it seems the universe was on Goepper’s side, today. Battling flat light conditions, Goepper secured a 93.66 on his first run through the course, a score that would hold for gold. Goepper was also the first competitor to drop in for a run this morning.

The gold-medal-winning run consisted of a switch 270 on, pretzel 270 out of a down rail up top; 180 on, 180 off a wallride feature; switch unnatural 270 on, pretzel 270 out of the third rail setup; a switch rightside double rodeo 900 double Japan; a rightside double bio 1080 safety and a leftside triple cork 1440 mute to cap ‘er off. The double bio is a new trick for Goepper; he put it to his feet for the first time just two weeks ago.

When asked about the three-peat, Goepper said it means the world to him. He (ironically, given the FIS banter this week) cited the X Games as “the World Championships of [the] sport.”

Today’s silver medalist, Joss Christensen, was humbled and excited to win his first-ever X Games medal. He skied his way to the podium with a run that went as follows: 270 on, 270 out of the down rail up top; switch rightside 270, pretzel 270 out of the second rail feature; switch left 270, backside 270 out of a gap-to-down; leftside double cork 12 double Japan; switch leftside double cork 10 tail and a switch rightside triple cork 12 safety (to the moon).

And rounding out the podium, as aforementioned, was Canadian Alex Bellemare, whose run went like this: Switch 270 on, pretzel 270 out of the top rail; switch 360 on, 180 out of the wall ride; 450 on, pretzel 450 out of the third rail feature (wow); a rightside double cork 12 mute; switch double cork 12 and a leftside double cork 12 double Japan to close.

In other happenings: Henrik Harlaut took on heck of a nasty spill today, and has reportedly been treated for a concussion and a fractured clavicle. The Swedish superstar is said to be in good spirits, despite the crash. Triple-threat Gus Kenworthy, who’s competing in all three disciplines here at X Games, was especially close to securing a top score, but was unable to hang onto his final jump (a switch triple) on both his first and second runs of the day. Thursday’s top qualifier, Tom Wallisch, struggled today, and would settle for a top score of 70.00.

Action from Buttermilk continues this evening with the big air elimination & final. Tomorrow, the boys will drop into the U-ditch at 2:45 MT for superpipe finals. For a full event & television schedule, click here.

For the latest from X Games, be sure to click on the “X Games” tag below. Additionally, follow @FREESKIERLive on Twitter for up-to-the-minute coverage of each freeskiing event, plus @FREESKIERmagazine on Instagram and @FREESKIER_mag on Snapchat, for more.

X Games slopestyle 2015, final results

[table id=36 /]

Related: Insider, Outside: Flat light rules the men’s X Games slopestyle final