Olympic snowboarder Scotty James recently won the hearts of Australian’s across the country when he won bronze at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The 23-year-old was the flag bearer for Australia’s PyeongChang Olympic team and showed why as he continually took it up to snowboarding legend Shaun White in the half-pipe.
Scotty James was born in 1994 in Warrandyte, an outer suburb of Melbourne which is not particularly well known for its snow. From a young age though, he showed both an affinity and a talent for the sport. He was competing as just a six-year-old and made his way onto the international stage at just 14 years of age when he competed at the 2008 Europa Cup in Switzerland.
A couple of years later and Scotty was the youngest male competitor at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, and Australia’s youngest male Olympian for 50 years.
He wasn’t initially expected to compete, but after Nate Johnstone was forced to miss with injury, Scotty got the call-up, officially becoming an Olympic snowboarder at age 15. He finished 21st, but the experience was undoubtedly an invaluable for a kid just a couple of years into his teenage life.
Over the next few years, he continued to hone his skills, and it became increasingly clear that the Halfpipe was where he excelled most, despite also putting in good performances in Slopestyle and Big Air.
In the 2013/14 season, he won the bronze medal in the Halfpipe – his first World Cup medal.
With a couple of other handy results under his belt, Scotty won the Overall World Cup Title for Snowboard Half Pipe.
Soon after he competed in the Sochi Olympics in both the Halfpipe and the Slopestyle, but he was still a cut below the best of the best, finishing outside the top 15 in both events.
Unsurprisingly, he kept getting better, and now has some very useful awards to his name. He won the Winter X Superpipe in Aspen in 2017, beating Shaun White, he took home gold at the Olympic Test Event the same year, and was promptly named the Australian Institute of Sports Male Athlete of the Year last year.
In snowboarding circles, he’d certainly developed a name for himself prior to PyeongChang 2018, but for the rest of the public, he was relatively unknown. His performance at the halfpipe changed all that.
After the first qualification run, he sat in 3rd place with a best score of 89, behind the USA’s Ben Ferguson, and of course Shaun White. The second qualification run saw a significant step up in quality, led by White, James and Japan’s Ayumu Hirano.
Hirano seemed the man to beat after he put in a huge 95.25, but James showed off the ice in his veins by following that up with a 96.75. White then put down a 98.50, but who cares. James was endearing himself to Australia and the world alike.
His laid-back demeanour at the top of the run combined with a seemingly affable personality made the 23-year-old a fan favourite, particularly against the Demon they call Shaun White. White’s already won a whole bunch of stuff in his career, and with a few claims against his character to boot, James was clearly the man everyone wanted to win.
He put in a first run 92, which placed him in second behind White. His second run wasn’t as good and earned just an 81.75, and on his third ru,n he stacked early as he went for broke. Nonetheless, he finished in third place behind Hirano and White and won over a whole bunch of people who had never heard of him a day earlier.
At just 23 years old, he’ll continue to improve, and the marketing deals his affable demeanour will secure him will keep him at the forefront of the public mind. The Winter Olympics are far from the most popular sporting event on the calendar for Australian’s, but Scotty James is certainly helping to boost their popularity.
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Feature Image: The Australian
Olympic snowboarder - Scotty James
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