"No pressure" for Tess Coady ahead of Big Air final at Beijing 2022
The Australian is excited to make her second final at the Games after clinching bronze in slopestyle.
Snowboard
Snowboarder Tess Coady could become Australia’s first double medallist at a single Olympic Winter Games after qualifying for the Big Air final on Tuesday (15 February).
But slopestyle bronze medallist Coady, who won her nation’s first medal of Beijing 2022, won’t be weighed down by expectation when she lines up.
"Big Air is not really my favourite event! I love slopestyle and I feel like I achieved definitely what I wanted to achieve," she told Olympics.com after qualifying for the 12-strong final in seventh place.
"Today I just wanted to land a few good runs and get through to the final. I didn’t feel so much pressure on myself as I did for slopestyle.”
The 21-year-old was stoked to have made the cut in her second favourite event after her historic medal.
On her Olympic debut at PyeongChang 2018, Coady watched the finals from the sidelines after suffering an ankle ligament injury in training.
To bounce back from the career-threatening knock that kept her out of action for two seasons and compete in two finals is a huge achievement.
"It was super challenging to get re-set for this event. I felt like I’d already done what I wanted to do in this Olympics and to have another event is pretty challenging to regather yourself and get ready to compete again,” said the two-time junior world champion.
"That’s definitely been a big challenge these last few days, getting back into the competition mindset. But today has gone really good, the jump is riding really well. We had some challenges in practice yesterday with the snow – 20cm in China which is crazy!"
New Zealand’s first-ever Winter Olympic champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, third in the inaugural event in PyeongChang, topped Monday’s qualifying run with a score of 176.50.
She was followed by Japanese pair Murase Kokomo (171.00), and Reira Iwabuchi (158.50).
Coady on her idols Anna Gasser and Jamie Anderson
Defending Olympic champion Anna Gasser of Austria qualified in sixth place.
For Coady, competing against some of her heroes has been a rewarding experience.
“It’s been so great riding with those girls. Anna especially is the one that I’ve always looked up to so much. I always loved watching her ride as a kid – I remember watching her at the 2014 Olympics.
"What’s cool is that we’ve actually become pretty close in the last few years, and she’s pushed me so much. I know that she didn’t get the result she wanted in slopestyle, so I hope she kills it in big air and she deserves it heaps.”
Jamie Anderson, the two-time slopestyle champion and Big Air silver medallist at PyeongChang, failed to qualify despite an impressive score of 89.75 on her final run.
Coady said: “That is a massive bummer as everyone saw on her third run what she can do, and I think she just got pretty unlucky on those first two.
“Jamie is so incredibly talented, and I know going into these Games with the history of the last two she had a lot of pressure on herself. So yeah, definitely a massive bummer as she’s such an incredible rider but it’s definitely not the end of the journey for her.”
MORE: Snowboarding at Beijing 2022 - full schedule and where to watch