Matteoli made Sunday's Shougang Big Air an event to remember, with a historic first-ever 2160 (six full rotations) to tailgrab executed in an official competition on his first run. That alone earned him an event-high single score of 97.75 points.

Still, it was the quality and consistency of Ogiwara that prevailed, as the 19-year-old standout topped the men's field with a winning combined score of 169.5 points, four more than Matteoli's total, from his two clean 1800 tricks.

Riding alongside the sport's top daredevils and joining them on the podium, Yang hailed his maiden World Cup medal as a long-overdue confidence boost.

"I am really excited to finally execute my tricks the way I wanted to in an official competition at the World Cup," said Yang, who landed two tricks, both involving 1800-degree rotations, in his first two runs to rousing cheers from the Shougang crowd.

"In a lot of previous competitions, I was too nervous to land the tricks that I'd completed in training runs. Tonight, I just carried a very good momentum from the qualification rounds to the final, and I enjoyed competing against the world's best, at such a world-class venue, so much.

"I am so happy, but at the same time, I won't get carried away by a medal tonight. I will try to maintain my good form and keep pushing for the 2026 Olympics," said Yang, who was drafted to China's newly-established snowboard freestyle national program in 2016 from a college martial arts team in his home city of Shenyang.