The wizard from Warrandyte Scotty James has won a well-deserved silver medal at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, alongside Olympic debutant Valentino Guseli finishing 6th.
In arguably the most anticipated event of the Games, Australia's dominance in the halfpipe was on display with the best snowboard talent from around the globe, including from five-time Olympian Shaun White from the USA.
A special anticipation and excitement was in the air early at the Genting Snow Park halfpipe, in the athlete Villages and all the way back in Australia – particularly in Scotty's hometown of Warrandyte and Valentino's home Dalmeny, or ‘Valmeny'.
Clear blue skies, no wind and a brisk –12C made for perfect competition conditions and a picturesque setting for what would be one of the biggest and most exciting halfpipe finals in Olympic history.
Scotty was thrilled to win a silver medal for Australia with a score of 92.50, with Japan's Ayumu Hirano only better with a 96.00 to take the gold.
"I feel amazing. If you had of said to me a long time ago that I would be a two-time Olympic medallist I would have said that you were dreaming." Scotty said.
"I'm honestly just really proud. It's a proud moment and obviously so much work goes into this. Ayumu (Hirano) is an amazing competitor to me and we have some really good rivals, I knew I had to deliver my best and I gave it my best shot in the end there and unfortunately came unstuck.
"I was really happy and proud with my second run. It's the most technical run I've ever done in my life and that was my vision today. I was super happy that it put me on the podium."
Rocking his trademark red gloves and wide grin, Scotty James was the second last athlete to take his first run after qualifying second for the finals.
It was a nail-biting battle for podium places among the top four competitors. Both Scotty James and Ayumu Hirano fell on their first runs to only score 16.50 and 33.75 respectively.
While challengers Jan Scherrer (70.59) from Switzerland and the greatest of all-time Shaun White earned a 72.00.
In the last competition of his illustrious career, the pressure was on Shaun White to produce a huge performance in his second run, which he turned into an 85.00 - his best run of the day to place 4th.
Scotty James' best run also came on his second attempt, with the wizard of Warrandyte taking the competition up a notch and smashing a stunning run and earning a 92.50 from the judges. It was a routine that could only be described as epic, starting with a switchback double cork 1260, followed by a front-nine tail grab, a backside 12 and finishing with a frontside 1440 tail grab that had spectators on their feet.
When asked about his medal-winning run Scotty James was still comprehending what he'd done.
"That combination has never been done before so I was really happy and thrilled to put that down.
"It's always funny doing interviews so quickly after because you don't get much time to process. So I think I'm just proud of what we did, proud of my team, proud of being out here representing Australia and that's all we can do."
On the very last run of the day, Hirano took out the gold medal.
The silver medal was well deserved for Scotty after a challenging few years for his camp, having to relocate to Switzerland to train as the pandemic made it difficult to attend competitions.
For Valentino Guseli, known for his big air and surprising skill, had three clean runs in the final. He earned a strong score of 75.75 in his first run to immediately jump into second place.
His consistency and strong performances resulted in a score of 79.75 from each of his second and third runs.
Valentino loved being on the Olympic stage in such a big occasion and sees himself having a long future in the sport.
"It was awesome to ride with all the homies. I think today was one of the biggest showings of competitive snowboarding ever. So it was awesome to be apart of it and super happy to have landed my runs," Valentino said.
"I had a really bad practice this morning, so I was just super happy to put my runs down. After I got through my first run [in the final] I started gaining a little bit of momentum and I guess it just led into the third run.
He was just as impressed as anyone about the performance Scotty James delivered.
"Scotty absolutely killed it. I'm super happy for him, he bettered his result and I'm sure he's going to continue to kill it around the world in all the other comps. He's the man."
With the pressure now off and Scotty looking forward to a medal ceremony in Beijing, he's already been thinking about what the future holds for him. Much to the delight of Australia, this won't be the last time we see the snowboarding sensation.
"Well I've got the bronze [from PyeongChang 2018], I've got the silver now... so there is only one left to get," Scotty said.
"So that's the plan."
olympics.com.au
Shannon Knaus
In arguably the most anticipated event of the Games, Australia's dominance in the halfpipe was on display with the best snowboard talent from around the globe, including from five-time Olympian Shaun White from the USA.
A special anticipation and excitement was in the air early at the Genting Snow Park halfpipe, in the athlete Villages and all the way back in Australia – particularly in Scotty's hometown of Warrandyte and Valentino's home Dalmeny, or ‘Valmeny'.
Clear blue skies, no wind and a brisk –12C made for perfect competition conditions and a picturesque setting for what would be one of the biggest and most exciting halfpipe finals in Olympic history.
Scotty was thrilled to win a silver medal for Australia with a score of 92.50, with Japan's Ayumu Hirano only better with a 96.00 to take the gold.
"I feel amazing. If you had of said to me a long time ago that I would be a two-time Olympic medallist I would have said that you were dreaming." Scotty said.
"I'm honestly just really proud. It's a proud moment and obviously so much work goes into this. Ayumu (Hirano) is an amazing competitor to me and we have some really good rivals, I knew I had to deliver my best and I gave it my best shot in the end there and unfortunately came unstuck.
"I was really happy and proud with my second run. It's the most technical run I've ever done in my life and that was my vision today. I was super happy that it put me on the podium."
Rocking his trademark red gloves and wide grin, Scotty James was the second last athlete to take his first run after qualifying second for the finals.
It was a nail-biting battle for podium places among the top four competitors. Both Scotty James and Ayumu Hirano fell on their first runs to only score 16.50 and 33.75 respectively.
While challengers Jan Scherrer (70.59) from Switzerland and the greatest of all-time Shaun White earned a 72.00.
In the last competition of his illustrious career, the pressure was on Shaun White to produce a huge performance in his second run, which he turned into an 85.00 - his best run of the day to place 4th.
Scotty James' best run also came on his second attempt, with the wizard of Warrandyte taking the competition up a notch and smashing a stunning run and earning a 92.50 from the judges. It was a routine that could only be described as epic, starting with a switchback double cork 1260, followed by a front-nine tail grab, a backside 12 and finishing with a frontside 1440 tail grab that had spectators on their feet.
When asked about his medal-winning run Scotty James was still comprehending what he'd done.
"That combination has never been done before so I was really happy and thrilled to put that down.
"It's always funny doing interviews so quickly after because you don't get much time to process. So I think I'm just proud of what we did, proud of my team, proud of being out here representing Australia and that's all we can do."
On the very last run of the day, Hirano took out the gold medal.
The silver medal was well deserved for Scotty after a challenging few years for his camp, having to relocate to Switzerland to train as the pandemic made it difficult to attend competitions.
For Valentino Guseli, known for his big air and surprising skill, had three clean runs in the final. He earned a strong score of 75.75 in his first run to immediately jump into second place.
His consistency and strong performances resulted in a score of 79.75 from each of his second and third runs.
Valentino loved being on the Olympic stage in such a big occasion and sees himself having a long future in the sport.
"It was awesome to ride with all the homies. I think today was one of the biggest showings of competitive snowboarding ever. So it was awesome to be apart of it and super happy to have landed my runs," Valentino said.
"I had a really bad practice this morning, so I was just super happy to put my runs down. After I got through my first run [in the final] I started gaining a little bit of momentum and I guess it just led into the third run.
He was just as impressed as anyone about the performance Scotty James delivered.
"Scotty absolutely killed it. I'm super happy for him, he bettered his result and I'm sure he's going to continue to kill it around the world in all the other comps. He's the man."
With the pressure now off and Scotty looking forward to a medal ceremony in Beijing, he's already been thinking about what the future holds for him. Much to the delight of Australia, this won't be the last time we see the snowboarding sensation.
"Well I've got the bronze [from PyeongChang 2018], I've got the silver now... so there is only one left to get," Scotty said.
"So that's the plan."
olympics.com.au
Shannon Knaus
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