Yoga helps Anderson to gold, Downton Abbey inspires Brit
Rosa Khutor (Russia) (AFP) - Jamie Anderson gave the United States an Olympics slopestyle snowboarding double on Sunday and credited her success to yoga, meditation and candles.
Following compatriot Sage Kotsenburg's victory in the men's competition a day earlier, four-time X-Games winner Anderson overcame a mistake on the first run to produce the goods on her second with a near-perfect 95.25 score.
And the American revealed she had turned to yoga the night before her event in order to keep calm ahead of her big day.
"Last night I was so nervous, I couldn't even eat and was just trying to calm down," said the 23-year-old.
"I put on meditation music, burnt some sage, got a couple of candles going and was just trying to do a bit of yoga and meditate. Yoga always comes through for me.
"It's all about the good vibrations and then I slept really good and just did some mantras and relaxed, and it worked out for me."
Her run pushed Finland's Enni Rukajarvi down to second after her second run had produced a long-time leading 92.50.
Jenny Jones won Britain's first ever Olympic medal on the snow as she held onto third with 87.25 after one of the favourites, Austria's Anna Gasser, made a mistake on her landing off the penultimate jump.
Veteran Jones, 33, revealed she had taken a different approach to Anderson in her pre-competition schedule.
"I watched Downton Abbey," she said in reference to the hit television period drama, to which Anderson asked: "What's that?"
Anderson was second after the first run in the final but saw herself pushed out of the medal positions by the time she took to the slopes for a second time.
"It feels amazing, goodness, (there was) so much anticipation and pressure leading up to this event for all of us," said the American.
"To have that moment come so quick and know this is your moment to shine and be your best and show the world what a fun sport snowboarding is.
"And all the love up there, you don't see a lot of other events and sports where the girls are such good friends and really, truly support each other and give each other energy to really be their best."
Rukajarvi had led for most of the second run but admitted she never expected to hold on.
"I knew that there were so many good riders left so I didn't really expect to be winning or even on the podium before everyone had came down," she said.
