Scotty James has Australian fans fizzing with silver in snowboard halfpipe
The final came down to a battle between Japan's Hirano Ayumu and Australia's Scotty James at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. And the tension sent fans wild.
Scotty James’ red gloves were on. He only brings them out for finals. But they weren't enough for him to seize gold in the men's snowboard halfpipe final.
The talk ahead of the final was about how Shaun White would perform in his last ever event (he finished fourth), and who could land the triple cork, the trick at the frontier of modern snowboard halfpipe competition. Australia's James didn't pull that trick out, but he smashed a super-technical second run to go top and put the pressure on.
Hirano Ayumu showcased, not one, not two, but three triple corks. But it was only on his third and final run that the judges were impressed enough to score the Japanese snowboarder in top spot.
That meant James dropped out of the gold-medal place with the very last run of the finals. Silver for the Australian is still his finest ever Olympic finish, after his bronze at PyeongChang 2018.