Australia's James eyes elusive halfpipe gold at Milano Cortina
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FILE PHOTO: Snowboarding - FIS Freestyle World Championships - Men's Halfpipe - St Moritz, Switzerland - March 29, 2025 Australia's Scotty James during the Men's Halfpipe training REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
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MELBOURNE, Jan 8 - Snowboarder Scotty James will head to the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics as one of Australia's biggest medal chances after more than a decade of pushing the limits in halfpipe.
Australia's flag-bearer at Pyeongchang 2018 took bronze at the Games in South Korea, silver at Beijing four years ago and is desperate to go one better in the Italian Alps where he will drop in at his fifth Olympics.
"The elephant in the room for me is I haven't won a gold medal yet," the 31-year-old said in the Netflix documentary, "Scotty James: Pipe Dream" released in December.
That could be about to change.
He won his fourth world title at St Moritz-Engadin, Switzerland, in March and currently sits second on the World Snowboard Points List, the global ranking system for the previous 52 weeks.
Only Japan's Ruka Hirano, runner-up at the world championships, sits above him.
Gold would make James Australia's most decorated Winter Olympian, eclipsing freestyle skier Dale Begg-Smith and women's snowboarder Torah Bright, who each took a gold and silver in their events.
Having made his Olympic debut at 2010 Vancouver and been at the peak of halfpipe for over a decade, James faced some doubts through the last Olympic cycle about whether he still had the motivation.
However, becoming a father a year ago proved a new spur to keep pushing for the sport's biggest prizes.
"That’s been a really awesome motivator for me to now want to win, but do it with a family at my side," he told Australian media.
"If I tried to continue to want to be the best from the day I started 10 years ago, I’d just run myself into the ground because I don’t operate the same.
"So I've always been open-minded about how I can evolve to keep that level of intensity."
Rivals-wise, James's title threats are familiar and Japanese-heavy.
Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano remains the benchmark when he is on, while Ruka Hirano and Yuto Totsuka have been trading podiums with the Australian at the biggest events.
Led by Ayumu Hirano, the three Japanese athletes swept the podium at the season-opener in Secret Garden, China, the first World Cup of the season.
James is banking on his experience and creativity in stitching together new trick combinations to stick the landing on top of the podium.
"For me, getting better is putting myself in uncomfortable environments and challenging myself, whether that’s with tricks, competitors, or different halfpipes," he said. REUTERS
