New Delhi, Feb. 10 -- On a frosty night in the Italian Alps, the queen of big air, Anna Gasser, bid adieu to her favorite Olympic event.

She left without a medal, but that didn't make it all bad. The snowboarders who won them - led by the new queen, Kokomo Murase of Japan - all knew they had Gasser to thank for pushing the envelope to help the sport look as good as it did Monday night.

"I'm happy to pass on the crown, the big crown, to Kokomo," said Gasser, who finished eighth. "She really deserves it and, yeah, it's crazy to see how far the sport has come in the last years."

Kokomo, silver medalist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and third-place finisher Seung-eun Yu all got to the podium with triple-cork, 1440-degree jumps - that's three head-o...