Snowboarder Scotty James has won an incredible fourth career halfpipe World Championship gold medal in St Mortiz-Engadin, Switzerland, making it a double medal celebration for Australia after Mia Clift and Cam Bolton claimed silver in the snowboard cross mixed team event earlier in the day.
 
James four World Championship gold medals make him the most successful snowboard halfpipe rider in history. Additionally, he has the highest number of World Championship wins among Australian winter sports athletes.
 
In the best of two run final in blizzard conditions, James opened with a score 89.50 for the highest scoring run of the round, leading Japanese riders Yuto Totsuka on 88.75 in second place and Ruka Hirano third on 88.50.
 
In the final run, James performed the same tricks but improved his execution and landings to score a huge 95 points. His run including a switch McTwist Japan grab, cab double cork 1080 with grab, frontside double cork 1260 with grab, backside double cork 1080 with grab and switch backside double cork 1260 with grab.
 
After James final run, the two Japanese riders were the only competitors left to go. They both increased their score from the first run, but it wasn’t enough to catch James, with Hirano second on 92.25 and Totsuka third on 92 points.
 
“Coming out this week it was such a challenge, with the weather and to ride at this level is already so high, and I definitely was sitting there feeling ok when Ruka and Yuto were dropping, they have been riding incredibly well all season and I have had some great battles with them” said the 30-year-old from Warrandyte in Victoria.
 
“Halfpipe is a scary sport, and it gets even scary when conditions are tough, I'm really pumped and felt like I had to be resilient today, so I’m stoked.”
 
“Honestly, I didn't really know what conditions to expect, I knew that it was going to be slow and the pipe was full of snow, and maybe runs might be toned down a bit, but then again once the good slip of the pipe gets through and you get a bit of momentum, you can usually get some better runs going.
 
“The 2023 World Championships was not a good day for me, I was pretty disappointed with my outcome and I wanted to make a statement for myself personally, that I wanted to come back and finish at the top, to have won four world titles again I'm pinching myself.”
 
Australia currently has three medals at the World Championships in St Moritz, snowboard halfpipe gold to James, silver in snowboard cross mixed teams to Mia Clift and Cam Bolton and bronze to Matt Graham in the dual moguls. The World Championships conclude tonight in Switzerland, with Australian aerial skiers Laura Peel, Danielle Scott and Airleigh Frigo a strong chance for another medal.

This week at the World Championships in St Moritz-Engadin, Switzerland, the snowboard and freeski athletes took on their second event, the big air competition, following last week’s slopestyle opener. NSWIS skier Daisy Thomas and snowboarder Tess Coady delivered the top performance among the Australian contingent, finishing in 22nd and 23rd places respectively.
 
In the snowboard big air, Japan dominated taking five of the six places on the podium. Australian results included Coady 23rd, Mela Stalker 24th and Jesse Parkinson 51st. Kokomo Murase and Ryoma Kimata of Japan were victorious.
 
In the freeski big air, Thomas was 22nd, Abi Harrigan 24th and Joey Elliss 49th. The freeski wins went to Italian Flora Tabanelli and Luca Harrington of New Zealand.

IMAGE - Daisy Thomas in action
PIC Chris Hocking

Daisy Thomas, Abi Harrigan and Joey Elliss have represented Australia in the freeski slopestyle event at the 2025 FIS Freestyle and Snowboard World Championships on Corvatch mountain in St Moritz, Switzerland.
 
In the women’s competition NSWIS skiers Thomas and Harrigan missed out on the 12-woman final finishing in 20th and 24th places respectively. In her World Championship debut Thomas’ best score came in her second run scoring 44.34, and Harrigan on  26.79.
 
Making his World Championship debut in the men’s event was Elliss in 40th place.
 
Victory in the women’s event went to local Swiss skier Mathilde Gremaud and Norwegian Birk Ruud was the men’s event winner. 
 
The three skiers will return to compete in the big air event at the World Championships. Women's qualifications are on March 26th, men's on the 27th, and the finals are on the 29th.

NSWIS snowboarder Tess Coady has finished 12th in the slopestyle final at the 2025 FIS Snowboard and Freestyle World Championships in St Mortiz, Switzerland.
 
In qualifying, Coady scored 66.39 in the opening run, placing her in seventh place and safely through to the final.
 
NSWIS teammate Mela Stalker just missed the 12-woman final in 13th place, with a best score of 56.13 in the first run of qualifying.
 
In the final, Coady was unfortunately unable to put a clean run down in her two runs, finishing in 12th place.
 
2022 Olympic slopestyle champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand finished in first place with a score of 88.54 in the final run, giving her a third slopestyle World Championship gold medal.
 
In the men’s event Jesse Parkinson was 27th in his heat and placing him 50th overall. Victory went to dual Olympic medallist Yiming Su of China. 
 
Coady, Stalker, and Parkinson are now preparing for the big air event at the World Championships. The men's qualifying round is on March 25, followed by the women's on March 26, and the final on March 28.

NSWIS freeskier Abi Harrigan has broken through to claim the first World Cup podium of her career, finishing second in the slopestyle event over the weekend in Tignes, France.
 
The 2022 Olympian qualified for finals in sixth place with a best score of 64.66, also advancing to the 10-woman final was NSWIS teammate Daisy Thomas in seventh on 62.58.
 
In the best of two run final high up in the French Alps, Harrigan put two down clean runs, scoring 67.85 for her first run, and then improved in the final run to score of 75.41, landing her in second place, securing Australia’s first World Cup ski slopestyle podium since Russ Henshaw in 2017, and only the second Australian female to do so joining former X-Games and World Champion Anna Segal.
 
Harrigan’s silver medal run included a right spinning 540 with grab on the first jump, switch 720 with grab on the second jump, smooth rail sections and left spinning cork 720 with grab on the final jump.
 
Joining Harrigan on the podium in first place was Kirsty Muir of Great Britain on 77.98, third place went to Ruby Star Andrews of New Zealand on 72.75
 
17-year-old Thomas finished in eighth place, her best score of 59.83 coming in the second run.
 
“Feeling pretty surreal to get my first podium here at Tignes,” said the 22-year-old Harrigan from Jindabyne in the NSW Snowy Mountains.
 
“I had a large training block after the Laax open, got a lot of stuff done, but also just had a blast skiing and love the sport so much right now, which has given me a new mindset towards competing.”
 
“This is the best thing leading into World Champs. It’s definitely going to give me a big confidence boost. Just stoked to ski a new course and see what we can get done.”
 
The podium performance improved Harrigan’s final World Cup slopestyle ranking to 11th, while Thomas ii 17th. In the big air discipline, Thomas finished the season ranked 14th and Harrigan 21st.
 
The freeski season for Harrigan and Thomas concludes at the FIS World Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland. Slopestyle qualifications are on March 19, finals on March 20 then big air qualifications are March 27 and finals March 29.
 
Joey Ellis will also be competing in the men’s slopestyle qualifications on March 19 and finals March 22, followed by men’s big air qualifications on March 26 and finals March 29

NSWIS snowboarder Tess Coady has competed in the World Cup slopestyle event at Absolut Park in Flachau, Austria, finishing third in her heat and sixth overall in qualifications before finals were cancelled due to snowfall and low visibility.
 
The 2022 Olympic medallist was drawn in heat one in the qualification round and had her best score in run two with a score of 75.50 from the judges, placing her in third.
 
After the decision to cancel finals, qualification scores from the two heats were used to determine the final result, placing Coady sixth overall.
 
Taking the win was Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand on 89.50, second was Annika Morgan of Germany on 88.25 and in third place was Mari Fukada of Japan with a score of 80.50.
 
Also competing for Australia was NSWIS World Cup rookie Ally Hickman in 32nd.
 
The result was great preparation for Coady, leading into the FIS Snowboard and Freestyle World Championships commencing this week in St Moritz, Switzerland. Coady will be looking for her third World Championship medal after a podium performance in 2021 (slopestyle - Aspen) and 2023 (big air - Bakuriani).
 
Joining Coady in St Moritz will be NSWIS teammates Meila Stalker and Jesse Parkinson.
 
World Championship slopestyle qualifications are on March 20 for the women and March 21 for the men. Finals for both are on March 23.
 
Big Air takes places in the second week with qualification on March 25 for the men, March 26 for the women and finals on March 28.