Scotty plans smokin’ new moves in half-pipe
The snowboard was originally introduced to Scotty James as a deterrent.
“The story that my Mum tells is that I wouldn’t quite co-operate with ski school,” James said.
“I was quite adventurous and would ski off on my own and wouldn’t keep with the class because it was boring.
“They thought the solution would be, ‘Let’s put him on a snowboard and that will put him on his arse so he won’t be out of our sight’.
“I think that worked for about five or six months until I figured it out.”
That little kid from Warrandyte on the slopes of Falls Creek certainly figured out the snowboard and by the time he was 15, James was representing Australia at the Winter Olympics.
Now at the grand old age of 23, he’s about to compete in his third Olympics and last night had the honour of carrying the Australian flag at the PyeongChang opening ceremony.
James is the reigning world champion in the half-pipe, a multi-millionaire and a seriously big deal in America although NBA star Ben Simmons may have recently knocked him off as Australia’s most popular athlete in the United States.
And by the middle of next week there’s a good chance he’ll also be an Olympic champion.
The first thing people notice about James is his height. It’s assumed that flying around in mid-air doing jaw-dropping twists and turns is more suited to those small in stature.
Generally that’s correct – the sport’s guru and two-time Olympic champion Shaun White is 175cm – but the Australian stands 190cm.
“It is definitely a bit unorthodox for someone like myself to be tall and be doing the tricks that I do,” James said.
“But I have kind of used it as an advantage for me.”
For a long time James just soaked up the lifestyle of travelling the world doing his thing – he first competed internationally when he was 14 – and never took things too seriously.
He finished 21st in the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 and the same position in the half-pipe four years later in Sochi (he also finished 16th in slopestyle).
But he wanted more and a switch was then flicked.
James started training properly, became a gym junkie and got a nutritionist on board which meant changes, the biggest being the exclusion of chocolate.
The new, improved version of James was there for everyone to see last year when he defended his world title, won his first X Games gold medal and took victory at the Olympic test event in South Korea.
James has been saving a couple of new moves for the Olympics but says the boost he gets from pulling on the Australian jacket and being part of his country’s team is just as important as his planning.
“There is more to it at Olympics,” he said.