National snowboarder Yu Seungeun on Feb. 9 bites into her bronze medal won in women's big air at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics at Livigno Snow Park in Livigno, Italy. (Yonhap News)

By Hong Angie

Snowboarder Yu Seungeun on Feb. 9 won Korea's second medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.

Her score of 171 was third in the women's big air at Livigno Snow Park in Livigno behind gold medalist Kokomo Murase of Japan (179) and runner-up of New Zealand (172.25).

Yu scored 80.75, 77.75 and 88.75 in her three attempts. In the preliminaries, her combined score of 166.5 was fourth out of 29, propelling her to the 12-competitor final.

Marking her 18th birthday on Jan. 28 a week before the tournament, Yu is Korea's first female athlete to earn an Olympic medal in skiing or snowboarding.

This was Korea's second medal of the Games and in snowboarding after snowboarder Kim Sangkyum the previous day bagged the first in the men's parallel giant slalom.

The country's lone Winter Olympic medal in skiing or snowboarding had been the silver in the men's parallel giant slalom by Lee Sangho at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang-gun County, Gangwon-do Province. Thanks to Yu and Kim, this is the first time for Korea to win two Olympic medals in both sports.

Kim's medal was won in an alpine snowboard event that tests speed, whereas Yu won her country's first Olympic medal in a freestyle snowboard event that awards skills like aerial turns.

National snowboarder Yu Seungeun (right) on Feb. 9 poses with gold medalist Kokomo Murase (center) of Japan and runner-up Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand at the winners' podium for the women's big air at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Livigno, Italy. (FIS Park & Pipe World Cup Instagram)