Scrutiny urged on Aussie’s out blow

AUSTRALIAN Winter Olympics chef de mission Ian Chesterman has called for a review into the circumstances surrounding a Games-ending injury to snowboarder Tess Coady, who ruptured her ACL in practice for the slopestyle event yesterday.

The 17 year-old looks set for a long stretch out of the sport after crashing in high winds on the final jump of her first run of training ahead of qualification heats.

The event was subsequently called off for the day.

Chesterman said that skiing and snowboarding’s governing body Federation Internationale de Skib (FIS) needed to look into whether the event should have been cancelled before training.

“I think that is something that definitely needs to be reviewed. I don’t think anyone can say for sure that’s [high winds] what caused this accident but I think it certainly needs to be reviewed,” he said.

“I think the international federation need to at some point review whether or not training should have taken place. They obviously cancelled the event.”

A junior world champion in both slopestyle and big air, Coady said she was extremely disappointed that her Games had ended before they began.

“It’s a very difficult time but I’m getting great support from the medical team and my teammates,” she said in a statement. “I’m going to work hard to come back even better in the future.”

The youngest of Australia’s Winter Olympics team, Coady was coming off a bronze medal at the World Cup event in Snowmass, Colorado, last month.

The slopestyle event has proved an unhappy riding ground for Australia, with the other half of the country’s contingent, Jessica Rich, ruled out earlier yesterday after failing to overcome an injury from a lead-up event.

Rich injured her knee in the US last month and has failed to gain medical clearance.

She’s a chance to recover for next week’s big air event, in which she has three top-10 World Cup results. HIGH winds had just about everyone scrambling in the men’s slopestyle event, except for Red Gerard who managed to keep his footing all the way to the podium.

The 17-year-old snowboarder won America’s first gold medal of the PyeongChang Games.