Scotty James won his eighth X Games gold medal in men's snowboard halfpipe Saturday night, matching the longtime record held by Shaun White.

And the Aussie did so in emphatic style. With riders upping the ante all season long ahead of the Milan Cortina Olympics, James ended his final run with a never-been-done trick combination: a switch backside 1440 into a backside 1440.

The 31-year-old star is widely regarded as the world’s best halfpipe rider when it comes to switch backside tricks. He was the first, and for years the only, rider to land a switch backside 1260. At last week’s Laax Open, he landed a switch backside 1440 in a contest run for the first time in his career — Ruka Hirano became the first rider to land that trick in a contest earlier this season — but X Games marked the first time he, or anyone else, had linked it into a backside 1440.

"All my competitors that I ride against, every year they get better," James said afterward. "When I look at the greats that have come before me — not just in halfpipe, but like Mark McMorris, for example, doing the first triple, Iouri Podladtchikov doing the first switch [frontside] 14, Shaun [White] doing the first back 12 — I really felt like I wanted to do something for myself and for halfpipe and push backside riding as much as I can. I wanted to come out and do the first ever back-to-back backside 14s."

The victory is James’ fifth straight at X Games, though this year’s field notably did not include Ayumu Hirano, who sustained facial injuries after a hard crash in the Laax Open final. Yuto Totsuka and Ruka Hirano, two other top contenders from Japan, also skipped the event.

New Zealand’s Cam Melville Ives, who finished 2nd behind James at the Laax Open, was unable to land a full pull, falling on his triple cork attempt on all three runs.

Coming off the momentum of Laax Open and X Games victories, James’ next contest will be the Winter Olympics in February.

History was also made in Aspen by Japan’s Kokomo Murase, who won women’s snowboard big air gold after becoming the first woman to land a triple cork 1620 in competition.

In men’s snowboard big air, Japan’s Hiroto Ogiwara repeated as champion by matching last year’s historic feat with yet another successfully landed 2340.

Other winners through the first two days of snowboarding events were Japan’s Sara Shimizu (women’s halfpipe) and Great Britain’s Mia Brookes (women’s slopestyle).

On the freeskiing side, three members of the U.S. Olympic team have already captured X Games gold in the event’s first two days. Mac Forehand won his second big air title after landing a switch triple cork 2160, and Alex Hall and Marin Hamill skied away with knuckle huck titles.

Other freeski contests were won by Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin (women’s halfpipe) and New Zealand’s Luca Harrington (men’s slopestyle).

X Games concludes Sunday, with men’s snowboard slopestyle and men’s freeski halfpipe among the marquee events on the schedule.