Rene Rinnekangas (born 25 September 1999) is a Finnish snowboarder. He participated in the 2018 Winter Olympics in both slopestyle and BigAir, placing 28th and 22nd respectively. Rene competed in the 2019 Winter X Games in slopestyle earning a silver medal, and in BigAir, placing 5th. He competed in the 2020 Winter X Games placing 8th8th in the slopestyle competition, 4th in BigAir, and competed in the Wendy's Knuckle Huck ranking 5th.5th He also competed in the 2020 X-games Real Snow with trusted cameraman Anton Kiiski - the couple went on to win X-games gold in that category .
The 2021 Winter X Games were held with no audience due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Rinnekangas placed 3rd3rd in slopestyle earning a bronze medal and placed 8th8th in BigAir. During the 2022 Winter X Games , Rinnekangas finished 5th5th in slopestyle and secured a bronze medal for 3rd place3rd place in Mens BigAir.
In 2026, Rinnekangas secured his second X Games gold medal by winning the Men's Snowboard Knuckle Huck at X Games Aspen, notably defeating veteran Halldór Helgason with a technical performance highlighted by his signature "hand-drag" creative style.
Rinnekangas started snowboarding at age four alongside his older brother, Riko, in the small town of Iisalmi, Finland. "I just had to try it out because everything he did was the coolest thing ever.". He also plays bass guitar in his brother's punk bank, Kätfish.
References
External links
Rene Rinnekangas at Milano Cortina 2026