FREESTYLE – SKI SLOPESTYLE:  Making its Olympic debut at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, Ski Slopestyle delivered all the drama and excitement that was promised with its introduction.

Australia had two athletes competing: Anna Segal and Russ Henshaw, both of whom had battled through injury just to make it to the starting gates at Sochi 2014.

Segal put in an incredible performance, but just missed out on the podium, coming an agonisingly-close fourth.

The 27-year-old was in the bronze medal position after her first run and stayed there until the very last skier to come down – Canadian Kim Lamarre – bumped her off the podium, scoring 85 points to Segal’s 77.

“I kind of knew. I know her skiing and I know what the judges reward and I saw her stomp everything and I thought ‘yep, she’s got it’,” Segal said.

The 2011 World Champion admitted after the race, she wouldn’t have skied in this competition if it wasn’t the Olympics and that she probably would have gone home for knee surgery.

Eighteen-year-old Dara Howell of Canada dominated the field, to become the first woman to win a Ski Slopestyle gold. American Devin Logan, who was ranked fifth coming in to the final, won silver.

In the men’s competition, Jindabyne’s Henshaw staked his place among the world’s best free skiers by finishing eighth.

Going into the final, the chilled-out athlete knew he had to pull off a triple cork to be in medal contention. He went for it on his very last jump, but ran out of room on the landing.

“That was actually the first one I’ve tried since I’ve been here, so I’m glad I gave it a crack, got close,” the 23-year-old said.

Team USA made a clean sweep of the podium. Dark horse Joss Christensen rose to the occasion, to win gold, outshining his more high-profile countrymen Gus Kenworthy and Nicholas Goepper who took home silver and bronze respectively.