Tess Coady has made a great return to competition, narrowly missing the podium in fourth place in her first World Cup of the season, a slopestyle event in Calgary, Canada.
 
The NSWIS 2022 Olympic medallist has been out of action since late last year and only resumed riding during January.
 
Coady started strongly in qualifying, advancing to the 12-woman final in third place with a best score of 70.26 in run one, the second highest score of the round.
 
In the best of two-run final, Coady opened with a score of 68.80
 
Coady was unable to improve on her score in the final run, losing speed on the landing of her backside 900 halfway through her run and not hit the remaining features.
 
Pulling into first place on the final run of the day was Mari Fukada of Japan on 77.58, Anika Morgan of Germany was second with 76.30 and Mia Brookes Great Britain, third on 74.08.
 
15-year-old NSWIS rider Ally Hickman was 24th in women’s qualifying and Jesse Parkinson was 26th in the men’s event, his highest slopestyle finish this season.
 
Coady commented on her social media after the event.
 
“Fourth place here in Calgary. Not my best riding ever but felt really good to get back in a bib after a year, dust off the cobwebs and land a run.
 
“Thanks to everyone who has supported me to get back to this point, it’s been a long journey!

“Excited to hang around Canada a bit longer before the next event!”
 
The final World Cup before the 2025 World Championships will be held in Absolut Park, Austria, on March 13-14.
 
Haskell 19th in Calgary Halfpipe
 
The final World Cup halfpipe event of the season took place in Calgary ahead of the World Championships, with Amelie Haskel, Misaki Vaughan, Emily Arthur and Sascha Elvy competing for Australia.
 
17-year-old Haskell was the best performed in 19th, followed by Vaughan in 20th, Arthur 23rd and Elvy 24th.
 
The World Championships halfpipe events will take place in St Moritz, Switzerland, from March 27-29.

Two-time Olympic medallist and seven-time X-Games champion Scotty James has placed fifth in the World Cup event in Aspen, USA, as competitors found the flat light challenging in the halfpipe.
 
Competing in the Aspen halfpipe where the VIS snowboarder claimed a record fourth straight X-Games gold the week before, James delivered an impressive performance dominating heat number two by achieving the highest score among all competitors with an outstanding 92 points.
 
In the best of three run final, James came close to putting down a medal winning performance in his second and third runs, but a few small mistakes resulted in an 85.75 in run two and 85 in run three, giving him a final ranking of fifth.
 
Japan swept the first four positions in the men’s event, with Ruka Hirano first on 93.25, Ayumu Hirano second 89.50, Ryusei Yamada third 88.25 and Yuto Totsuka fourth 87.5.

After four World Cup events, James is ranked fourth on 275 points, trailing Japanese riders Ayumu Hirano on 290, Ruka Hirano 285, and Totsuka 280.
 
In the women’s event Amelie Haskell was 13th, Misaki Vaughan 26th and two-time Olympic champion Chloe Kim of the USA took the win.
 
Freeski & Snowboard Slopestyle
 
Australia’s best performed in the slopestyle was NSWIS freeskier Daisy Thomas who finished in 16th place and in the snowboard slopestyle Paige Jones was 25th, Allie Hickman 28th and Jesse Parkinson 32nd.  
 
World Cup big air events will take place in Aspen this week, freeski qualifying on February 4, snowboard on February 5 and the final for both disciplines on February 6.