SNOWBOARD – HALFPIPE: Australian riders Scotty James, Nathan Johnstone and Kent Callister will be doing everything they can to try and knock two-time Olympic Champion, Shaun White, off his perch when they compete in the Halfpipe at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park on Tuesday.
SNOWBOARD – HALFPIPE: Australian riders Scotty James, Nathan Johnstone and Kent Callister will be doing everything they can to try and knock two-time Olympic Champion, Shaun White, off his perch when they compete in the Halfpipe at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park on Tuesday.
The Flying Tomato, as he’s known, is on a mission to become the first snowboarder to win three Olympic Gold medals in a single event. He even withdrew from the Slopestyle competition to focus on defending his Halfpipe crown.
Australia’s coach Ben Alexander says it’ll be tough, but the boys are up for the challenge.
“It’s not going to be easy by any means, but the guys are in the mix, so we just need to get in there, have a good day and I think they can do pretty well,” Alexander said.
“There are a lot of good snowboarders out there and a lot of good riding going on.”
2011 World Champion Johnstone and dual Olympian James are both capable of winning a medal. Johnstone won the 2013 Copper Mountain Grand Prix and has back-to-back double cork 1080s in his bag of tricks. James placed fourth at the recent X Games, and is on the mend after a crash in the Slopestyle qualifications on Thursday.
“The guys are looking forward to performing and giving it their best. It’s been proven in the past that when they do that, they’re right up there in the mix pushing for podiums,” Alexander said.
American-born Callister has been landing two new doubles (cab double cork 1080 and double crippler) in recent weeks and will strive to make the top ten.
The USA is by far the most dominant nation in the sport. In addition to White, they’ll also have Danny Davis, Greg Bretz and Taylor Gold in medal contention.
Other athletes to watch include 15-year-old Japanese sensation Ayumu Hirano and Iouri Podladtchikov, aka the iPod, who left Russia to compete for Switzerland after the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Podladtchikov invented the YOLO flip (cab double cork 1440), a trick that Shaun White came to Perisher Resort in Australia last September to learn on a purpose built pipe.
Qualification begins at 2pm local time on Tuesday (9pm AEDT Tuesday) with the medals decided in the final at 9.30pm (4.30am Wednesday).
