2014 Winter Olympics: Sage Kotsenburg takes home first gold of the Games

Team USA has taken home the first gold of the 2014 Winter Olympics with the help of snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg, 20, of Park City, Utah.

The medal was a first in every way imaginable. Besides being the first of the Games and for the United States, the medal was a first for Kotsenburg as well as for the men's slopestyle competition, which debuted this year.

"I'm pretty surprised I won, honestly," he said, The Washington Post reported.

Kotsenburg isn't just being modest: With the exception of winning a Grand Prix event three weeks ago, the snowboarder couldn't remember winning any event since he was 11 years old.

"Coming here and winning, I can't even describe the feeling," he said. "It's so cool."

The competition, which includes a snowboard course with long rails and high jumps, has been the focus of media attention after American Shaun White dropped out in order to focus on the halfpipe.

"Thursday's Olympic debut of men's snowboard slopestyle was a bumpy one," ESPN wrote of the event. "It began with more talk about who wasn't competing than the 29 riders who were, and it ended with the gold-medal favorite staring, shell-shocked, into a throng of reporters as he tried to explain why the judges believed he had come up short."

Kotsenburg was the only American to advance past the finals, at which point he called his brother and said he was considering shaking things up by adding a new trick, the Post reported. Called a 1620 Japan, the move includes four and a half rotations and a behind-the-back board grab.

The risk paid off. Despite never having tried it before, Kotsenburg nailed it to bring home the gold. "I had no idea I was even going to do a 1620 in my run until, like, three minutes before I dropped," he said. "That's kind of what I'm all about, just kind of being random."