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Livigno: As Scotty James soared for one final shot at an Olympic gold medal, an overhead cable from the broadcast camera that was tracking him snapped above the mixed zone at the end of the halfpipe and came crashing down.
Scotty James in the men’s halfpipe final.Credit: AP
Those underneath it thought something had gone horribly wrong – so wrong, potentially, that the result might have been in question had it come into his peripheral vision.
Fellow Australian snowboarder Valentino Guseli thought someone from above was trying to send Scotty a sign.
“You know what was crazy? Did you see the wire that broke? I thought that that was some kind of omen from the shred gods,” Guseli said.
“He was riding that pipe, he was tearing it apart – like, that was from the shred gods saying, ‘We’re with you Scotty’ while he was in the pipe. It was the craziest thing that’s ever happened.”
Did James notice the cable? And if he did notice the cable, would that have been grounds for a protest?
Guseli reckoned so.
“If he noticed it, that would be enough to mess you up if you’re in a trick,” Guseli said. “When you’re in that trick, he probably didn’t notice it – but if he did, you’d want a re-run, kind of thing.”
As it turned out, James only found out about it when it was raised with him afterwards by media.
“Everyone’s talking about the cable,” he said. “I should blame it on the cable.”
Fundamentally, the result was a case of someone being better than him on the night, and James was not hiding from that.
As Guseli put it: “I guess they [the shred gods] weren’t with him.”
Valentino Guseli in the men’s halfpipe final. Credit: Getty Images
Nor were they with him. Guseli, 20, pulled off a score of 88.00 in his third and final run to finish in fifth – his best effort at this level, continuing his progression, but not yet enough to get on on the dais.
“On the first two runs I sucked, but I landed my last one, and I got one place better than I did at the last Olympics – so we’re going up, which is cool,” he said.
The pressure of the occasion and the quality of the field made it tricky for him to compete, and to bring out his best self.
If he had more time between the Olympics and the ACL injury he sustained in December 2024, could he have rivalled James and the Japanese for a medal?
“Sure, but that wasn’t the reality, and I did what I could with my reality,” Guseli said.
“I think if I rode better today I would be in a better place – and I definitely think I could have ridden better, but dealing with the pressure of the Olympics, and especially finals, it’s crazy.
“Yesterday, I watched the girls and was surprised with how many crashes there were – stuff that I’ve seen these girls do really consistently and then on that night they couldn’t really get it. And then, today, I understood why.
“That kind of finals pressure in the Olympics is massive, and I think everyone felt it a little bit. I think Yuto managed to feel it the least and put down the best run, which is great for him, and unfortunately for Scotty, didn’t get the W [win] that everyone was expecting and hoping for. But it might keep him in the sport a bit longer.”
Guseli couldn’t say if the nerves he felt in Livigno were different to the nerves he felt as a 16-year-old at Beijing in 2022. What he did know was that jagging a medal was within his current capabilities had he executed. And he didn’t do that.
“I knew that today, I definitely was going for gold a lot more than four years ago. I didn’t have much experience back then … going into it I believed that if I did my best snowboarding, that I could have won,” Guseli said.
“I still believe if I did my best snowboarding, I could have won. But I just didn’t. That’s the nature of the game. Sucks to suck, I guess. But it doesn’t really – that’s life.”
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Asked what 15-year-old Scotty James would think of this if he was told back at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver that he would win three Olympic medals, James said he would give himself some tough love.
“He’d say, put a bloody smile on your face you sook and go and have a beer,” James said.
“Life’s not so bad. He would say that, and I am. I am really proud, and he would also say, just keeping chipping away. I love what I’m doing, I love this sport, I love the competition, and I just want to say a huge shoutout and respect to the Japanese team.
“Every single year we go toe-to-toe, and it killed me that Yuto beat me tonight, but he’s been on the other end of that many, many times with me.”
Tonight’s final was on another level.
The scores thrown down by Japan’s Yuto Totsuka, Ryusei Yamada and Ruka Hirano put the pressure on James and the rest of the field.
Scotty James falls in the final.Credit: Getty Images
This is what Scotty had to say of the level out there tonight.
“It was an amazing finals. I knew I had to go for something, I went for the back 16 [backwards entry with four and a half rotations] and then came unstuck,” James said.
“And it’s left me wondering, if I had of landed the first run, could that have done it? Maybe it was better execution than my second run.
“That will keep me up tonight, but we’re athletes. We’re resilient, we get on with it, and look, I’m happy to be out here representing the country most importantly.
After the medal ceremony, Scotty is making his way through the media mixed zone.
Here’s what he had to say of his silver medal-winning performance today.
“I’m really proud, obviously. It’s hard to win medals at the game, and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little bit disappointed,” he said.
“I have, obviously, big ambition, and I wanted to come away landing the run, regardless of the medal, and I wasn’t able to do that on the third run.
“It is what it is and the show goes on. The sun will rise tomorrow, my little boy will need me tomorrow, he won’t care what medal is around my neck, to be honest. Everyone back in Aus, love you, thank you.”
Scotty James with his silver medal in the ceremony.Credit: Getty Images
Scotty James walks out for the medal ceremony.Credit: Getty Images
Japan’s Yuto Tosuka wins gold, Scotty James wins silver and Ryusei Yamada wins bronze.Credit: Getty Images
Scotty James leaves the medal ceremony.Credit: Getty Images
Over to the medal ceremony now, where Scotty James is fighting back tears as Australian champion Jess Fox presents him with his silver medal.
Fox, a three-time Olympic gold medallist in canoe slalom, was also holding back tears.
But for Japan’s Yuto Totsuka, the tears are flowing. He has won an Olympic gold medal, and defeated one of the world’s greatest to get it.
While we wait for the medal ceremony, here’s the first words from Australian Valentino Guseli.
“Well, as I kind of expected, it was the craziest level of halfpipe snowboarding of all time,” he told Nine.
“Most of us actually didn’t put down that many runs, just because we were pushing so hard.”
Valentino Guseli of Australia in the halfpipe final.Credit: Getty Images
While Scotty was in the pipe, a cable from the overhead camera snapped and fell on top of the mixed zone and cameras in front.
It’s hard to know whether that entered his line of sight and distracted. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t.
It doesn’t look like that’s going to affect the result here, at least not immediately.
Scotty doesn’t seem to be protesting anything, he doesn’t seem upset, other than with himself and the way that last run went. He really went for it and fell short.
You’ve got to feel for him.
