Overview

Australia’s snowboard squad at Beijing 2022 features 11 athletes (seven men and four women).

The competition will be held between Saturday 5 February to Tuesday 15 February. When Snowboard made its Olympic debut at Nagano 1998, Australia was represented by Zeke Steggall.

At Torino 2006 Australia greatly increased its snowboard contingent, taking nine athletes. Torah Bright, Holly Crawford, Johanna Shaw and Emily Thomas became Australia's first Olympic female snowboard representatives. Damon Hayler was the best placed male, finishing seventh in snowboard cross.

Vancouver 2010 was Australia’s most successful Winter Olympics and Torah won Australia’s first snowboard medal – gold in the women’s halfpipe.

At Sochi 2014 Torah again secured a medal (silver) for Australia and became the first to compete in three snowboard events at the same Games.

PyeongChang 2018 snowboard cross silver medallist Jarryd Hughes is a renowned big event performer and hungry for another medal at the Olympic level.

Australia’s historical medal tally in Snowboard consists of a gold medal, two silver medals and one bronze medal.

What’s the story?

• Scotty James, a three-time world champion and PyeongChang 2018 bronze medallist, will be going for gold in the halfpipe.
• Belle Brockhoff, ranked third in the women's snowboard cross World Cup rankings, has medal aspirations at her third Olympic Games.
• 16-year-old Aussie halfpipe sensation Valentino Guseli will make his Olympic debut.
• Australia is the reigning mixed team snowboard cross world champion and will aim for gold in the event’s Olympic debut.
• Emily Arthur returns for her second Olympic Games in the halfpipe, after she finished 11th in the final at PyeongChang 2018.

Ones to watch

The Aussies

As a 15-year-old last year, Valentino Guseli beat Olympians and World Champions in his World Cup debut to qualify first for the finals. On a separate occasion he broke a world record with the highest ever air in a halfpipe.

Read more about how Valentino is ready for Beijing 2022 here.

Tess Coady is back in the slopestyle field after she qualified for PyeongChang 2018 as a 17-year-old but could not compete due to injury. She was a slopestyle bronze medallist at the 2021 World Championships in Aspen and recently took out gold at the prestigious Laax Open in January.

Cameron Bolton, Australia’s best ranked men’s snowboard cross competitor in the World Cup standings (no.4), will be hoping to achieve the nation’s best ever finish in the event. As will Adam Lambert and Adam Dickson, who are both ranked top 15 in the World Cup standings. Cameron heads to his third Olympics with a spring in his step after claiming a bronze medal at the Cortina World Cup, Italy in late January.

Beijing 2022 features a mixed team snowboard cross event for the first time at Olympic level. The Aussies will be hoping for another gold medal winning performance in this event after Jarryd Hughes and Belle Brockhoff won it at the 2021 World Championships.

2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games gold medallist Josie Baff is set to compete in snowboard cross.

Matt Cox makes his Olympic debut in the men’s slopestyle. Last year he won silver at the US Open and US Nationals.

The competition

Shaun White (USA) once again stands in Scotty’s way in the halfpipe, a three-time Olympic gold medallist who is set to participate in his fifth and final Winter Olympics.

Chloe Kim (USA) became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboard gold medal at 17 in PyeongChang. Now 21 she is the reigning World, Olympic and X Games champion in the halfpipe.

Sofia Nadyrshina (RUS) leads the international women’s parallel giant slalom rankings and is set to make her Olympic debut.

Competition format

Male and female athletes will compete in all competition formats. The halfpipe, slopestyle and big air competitions are judged events. Athletes are scored by a panel of judges who assess riders based on the difficulty of their tricks, execution of the run, scale of techniques used and landing of the jumps.

The snowboard cross, parallel giant slalom and mixed team snowboard cross events are all races.

Genting Snow Park in Chongli will host every snowboard event apart from the big air, which takes place at Shougang Park.

Halfpipe

One competitor at a time performs a routine of acrobatic jumps, flips, twists and other manoeuvres on a halfpipe. The athletes are judged on their take-offs, the height they reach above the top of the pipe, the difficulty and execution of their tricks.

Two qualification runs will be held and the athlete’s best score from either round will be used to shortlist the finalists. Qualification scores do not carry over to the final round.

Each competitor in the final phase gets three runs and each athlete’s top score from their best run in the final phase determines their placing and medals.

Men’s and women’s qualifying gets underway on Wednesday 9 February. The women’s final runs can be seen on Thursday 10 February and the men’s final runs on Friday 11 February.

Snowboard Cross

Snowboard cross is a fast and furious event which features manoeuvres down a challenging course with jumps and obstacles.

The competition consists of a seeding phase and finals. The seeding phase consists of timed runs to populate the final brackets.

The following formats can be used:

1. Best of two runs.
2. Best of two runs with half the field directly qualified for the final phase after the first run.
3. One run.

The finals (1/8 finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals, big and small final) are divided into heats of up to four competitors based on the seeding results. Up to and including the semi-finals, the top two competitors from each heat advance to the next phase.

Catch the women’s Snowboard Cross on Wednesday 9 February and the men’s Snowboard Cross on Thursday 10 February.

Big Air

The snowboard discipline big air made its debut at the PyeongChang 2018. There are two phases of the competition – qualification and final.

Results from each phase are determined by the best of two runs, or the best of three runs. Scores do not carry over from qualification to the final.

Big air is split across two days with qualifying held on Monday 14 February and finals on Tuesday 15 February.

Parallel Giant Slalom

The parallel slalom involves two riders racing down the same slope on two parallel courses, outlined with gates and triangular flags, blue on the left course and red on the right course.

After one qualifying run and an elimination run, in which the athletes are striving for their best time as opposed to winning the race, a 16-person head-to-head knockout competition is established.

Each head-to-head knockout race will consist of one run down the course and whoever crosses the finish line first advances to the next round. The racer with the better qualification time can choose either the red course or the blue course.

Finals consist of 1/8 finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals, consolation rounds 5th–8th, a small final (for the bronze medal) and a big final (for the gold and silver medals).

Competition begins on Tuesday 8 February in a session with a qualification run and an elimination run. They continue later in the day with the 1/8 finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals, small final and big final.

Slopestyle

Slopestyle courses feature rails, jibs, hips and a variety of jumps allowing skiers to combine big air and technical tricks into one run. Competitors are evaluated on their execution, difficulty of line, landing and use of the course.

There are two phases of the competition – qualification and final. All riders get one or two runs each in qualifying, with the score from their best run counted. Those progressing to the final get three runs each, with only their top score used. Qualifying scores do not carry to the final.

Women’s qualifying starts the snowboard schedule at Beijing 2022 on Saturday 5 February. The final will follow on Sunday 6 February, with the men also in action on Sunday for their qualifying and final.

Mixed Team Snowboard Cross

The mixed team event is a two-competitor-per-team relay with a male and female athlete. The male athletes race first, with the women leaving the start gate on the respective time margin that the men crossed the finish line.

The competition consists of a finals phase only. The finals (quarter-finals, semi-finals, big and small final) are divided into heats of up to four teams.

All the action is scheduled for 16 teams on Saturday 12 February, beginning with the quarter-finals. The semi-finals, small final and big final follow in quick succession. The big final is the only medal event.

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