Athlete Profile
Kokomo Murase: Fit To Push Snowboard Progression
By Colin Bane
Kokomo Murase is ready to make more history...
...at X Games Aspen 2025. Ready to defend her gold medals in Snowboard Big Air and Knuckle Huck. Ready to upgrade her Aspen 2025 Slopestyle silver and become the first woman with three gold at a single X Games.
But first she’splanning to take a brief pause. The week before X Games, she’ll don a traditional long-sleeved furisode winter kimono for the Seijin-shiki ceremony to commemorate Seijin-no-hi, the Japanese Coming-of-Age Day.
“In Japan, you’re considered an adult at age 20,” says Kokomo, who turned 20 in November. “It’s an important rite of passage to the next stage of your life. You reflect on some of the magic of your childhood and the things you’ll take with you into adulthood.”
What Kokomo accomplished as a teen at X Games was magical: She earned nine medals (3 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze), beginning with her gold medal Big Air debut at X Games Norway 2018. Then just 13, she became the first woman to land a double cork 1260 in a contest (and on a sketchy scaffolding setup, too). The victory made her the youngest medalist in an X Games winter discipline, a mark she still holds nearly seven years later.
“Getting invited to X Games at age 13 to show off my new trick changed the trajectory of my life completely,” she says, with a translation assist from her agent Miles Atkinson. “It’s hard to believe it’s been seven years!”
Kokomo bookended her teenage years with a gold medal in Big Air on the last night of X Games Aspen 2024. The then 19-year-old became the first woman to land a backside triple cork 1440 at X Games and landed a first-in-women’s-competition frontside triple cork 1440 -- two more records to her name. She nearly landed a backside triple cork 1620 on her victory lap, a sign of where she’s going.
“I’m really happy to be part of this evolution that’s happening in women’s snowboarding,” Kokomo says. “I like to be the first to land a trick and to change continuously.”
Murase’s nine X Games medals are tied for the 3rd-most collected by a teen. Skateboarder Gui Khury now owns 11, one more than skier Kelly Sildaru. You may have heard of the other athletes with nine XG medals before turning 20: Shaun White and Nyjah Huston.
“X Games fans have seen what I was capable of as a teenager,” Murase says. “Now that I’m an adult, I’m eager to show the next phase of my maturity as a snowboarder.”
Built Different
Image ©Joshua Duplechian/X Games
Kokomo has been notoriously hard on herself for anything short of a win throughout her career. She even admits to crying a little after settling for Slopestyle silver behind Mia Brookes at X Games Aspen 2024. She’ll be aiming for three gold this year.
“To me, winning triple gold would represent that I am a true snowboarder, able to excel in every aspect of the sport,” Kokomo declares. “I want to shake up the stereotype of Japanese riders as Big Air contest robots and let the world know that, yes, I am a Japanese rider and can do the big spins and technical tricks, but I’m also a stylish snowboarder and I can do it all. I’m different.
No doubt.
Another Big Air gold might be a given after Murase won by an enormous 19-point margin in 2024. She’ll be the favorite in Knuckle Huck, too. “I loved Knuckle Huck and had so much fun with it last year,” Kokomo says. “I felt like, ‘This is snowboarding!’ It’s the thing I’m most looking forward to in Aspen this year.”
No winter athlete has captured three gold at one X Games. Only three have done it, period, and none since Travis Pastrana in 2006. But Kokomo certainly is capable.
“Knowing that I can do better adds a good amount of pressure,” she says. “To be honest, I don't think I’ve changed that part of myself as I’ve gotten older. I’m still hard on myself and hatelosing, but I think that’s productive pressure.”
What’s Cooler Than Being Cool? Ice Cold
Images ©Trevor Brown, Jr./X Games
Gold medals are one thing. Kokomo achieved something else at X Games Aspen 2024 that was just as important to her: “I’d like to be the most stylish and most talked about rider again,” she says. “That was a good feeling last year!”
Kokomo scored a $10,000 “Best In Snow” award for overall performance at XG Aspen 2024, and style was part of why. Her stylelight reel included a Miller flip 540 in Knuckle Huck, a frontside cork 360 stalefish rewind as her Style trick in Big Air (which earned the maximum 10 points in the Style section), and tech rail tricks in Slopestyle.
She also lit up the X Games group chat with her daily drip, breaking out new outfits for each discipline. Aspen 2024 was the first year without mandatory X Games competition bibs. Kokomo celebrated by wearing a shearling coat unzipped and flapping in the wind for Slopestyle, a modernist yin-yang print Nomadik jacket in Knuckle Huck, and purple pinstripes for Big Air.
“I loved being able to show my clothing style,” she says. “That aspect of fashion and showing your own style has always been one of my favorite parts of both snowboarding and skateboarding, so it was fun to have some more freedom with it at X Games.”
Between her skills and the kits, Kokomo will be impossible to miss at X Games Aspen 2025. Watch as she makes history.
Kokomo Murase Bio Blast
- DOB: November 7, 2004. Age 20.
- 9 career X Games medals, including 3 gold: 2 gold, 2 silver in Big Air; Knuckle Huck gold; 2 silver, 2 bronze in Slopestyle.
- Tied with Skateboard Vert and Vert Best Trick competitor Moto Shibata for most X Games medals of any Japanese athlete.
- Big Air and Knuckle Huck titles at XG Aspen 2024 put her in elite company: Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (Aspen 2022), Jamie Anderson (Aspen 2021), Tara Dakides (Mount Snow 2000) and Barrett Christy (Big Bear 1997) are the only other women snowboarders with double gold at an XG.
- Kokomo’s younger sister, Yura Murase, also is scheduled to compete at XG Aspen 2025. Yura, now 17, snuck in off the alternate list to make her debut at Aspen 2024, finishing 7th in Big Air. “Yura is my favorite person to snowboard with and she’s learning so fast," Kokomo says. “It’s been so fun to travel the world together and watch her start winning things.”
- Instagram: @cocomonsan, 46.7k followers.