Scotty James has extended his amazing win streak to ten events, with the Australian halfpipe rider defending his X-Games title in Aspen, Colorado, USA.

The 25 year old snowboarder from Warrandyte, Melbourne, led from start to finish in the jam format to claim his third career gold medal and celebrate with a victory lap ahead of his final run.

Behind James on the podium was Japanese rider Yuto Totsuka in second, with Jan Scherrer from Switzerland in third.
“I knew everyone was going to come out tonight and go for it”, James said in the finish area seconds after finishing his run.

“The variety tonight was really cool, and it definitely tested me.”

“In snowboarding we typically have one run in mind that we want to do, and tonight tested us all a little bit, we dropped from different sides, had different runs ,and really channelled that inner snowboarder from back in the day, so it’s been very cool tonight.”

“Aspen is always an insane event to ride and X-Games always makes it really cool for us.”

James is Australia’s most successful male snowboarder to date. The three time World Champion won an Olympic bronze medal at PyeongChang in 2018, has a collection of X Games medals (3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) and nine FIS World Cup medals (6 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze).

James also became the second most successful half pipe rider in X Games history behind 2018 Olympic Champion Shawn White.

Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images

Tess Coady has completed an amazing comeback from injury, claiming Australia’s first ever World Cup slopestyle gold medal in Seiser Alm, Italy.

The 19-year-old from Melbourne qualified in third place, and in finals stomped a run that saw her do switch bluntslide to regular on the waterfall rail, a perfect skate-style backside lipslide on the down rail out of the butterbox, and a 50-50 backside 180 melon out on the flat rail.

Through the jump line Coady was especially clean, with a switch backside 540, a huge backside 720, and a corked frontside 720 on the final jump to earn a score of 73.48 that would withstand all challengers to come.

“I’m so hyped,” Coady smiled from the finish area before the awards ceremony, “It’s my first slopestyle back since the (PyeongChang 2018) Olympics, where I injured my knee, and I was expecting to come out here and just get some experience doing slopestyle and competing again because it’s been such a long time. I was not expecting to win. It’s amazing.

“I have so much respect for every person that’s gone through a knee injury. It’s such a long process. I had it in my mind that it would be like a year of rehab and I’d be back snowboarding, but the reality for me was that it’s take about two years to get back. There’s a lot of hurdles to get over. But I’m so happy I was able to persist through it all and I’m stoked to be back.”

Coady now has two World Cup medals, with her first podium coming in January 2018 at Snowmass, CO, USA, where she placed third.

Joining Coady on the podium was Katie Ormerod from Great Britain in second place, and Canadian Brooke Voigt in third.

NSWIS rider Matt Cox finished in 45th place in the qualification round, and did not progress through to the final.

The next World Cup slopestyle event will take place in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, on the 21st of March, the venue where Coady won double gold in slopestyle and big air at the World Junior Championships in 2017.

It was another golden performance for Australia’s Scotty James overnight at the Laax Open World Cup event in Switzerland.

The 25 year old snowboarder from Warrandyte, Melbourne, took the first place podium for the third time this season, extending his current win streak to nine events dating back to December 2018.

James led the field with a huge 95.75 points in his first run, and held the lead for the rest of the event with a simple victory lap on his second and final run.

Behind James on the podium was Japanese rider Yuto Totsuka (92.25) in second, with American Taylor Gold (87.00) in third.

“It feels absolutely amazing,” James smiled after he completed a high-five victory lap down the sides of the pipe, “I know coming into tonight it was going to be really tough, everyone was going to bring their A-game, but I was ready to go there.

“I know Yuto (Totsuka) was going to go for it so I didn’t take anything for granted and I was ready to go again (in my second run) if I needed to, but it’s definitely sweet to be able to come down and say thank you to everyone that’s come out to watch us tonight. It really does mean the world and it makes our job so enjoyable.”

James is Australia’s most successful male snowboarder to date. The three time World Champion won an Olympic bronze medal at PyeongChang in 2018, has a plethora of X Games medals (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) and now nine FIS World Cup medals (6 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze) to add to his collection.

James will next look to defend his title at the X-Games in Aspen, Colorado, USA, on January 24.