Jewish snowboarder Scotty James won the silver medal in the halfpipe event on Saturday to become Australia’s most successful Winter Olympian ever.
His silver in Milano Cortina joins a silver in Beijing in 2022 and a bronze in Pyeongchang in 2018 in his trophy cabinet.
The feat also rounded off the most fruitful day ever for Australia in the Winter Olympics, as James’ compatriots, Cooper Woods and Josie Baff, claimed golds in the men’s moguls skiing and the women’s snowboard cross respectively.
James, 31, was competing in his fifth Games and has won almost every accolade possible in the halfpipe, the only missing piece being the Olympic gold.
Indeed, in his Netflix documentary, Scotty James: Pipe Dream, the athlete called the fact that he has never claimed the top prize in his event the “elephant in the room”.
On Saturday, he came agonisingly close to remedying this, with his top score of 93.50 only narrowly beaten by Japanese world number one Yuto Totsuka, whose best run scored 95.00.
James scored 48.75 in his first run due to a fall, but achieved the 93.50 score thanks to a run that included a switch backside 1440 directly into a backside 1440 combination. He became the only rider to ever complete this sequence.
However, in his third attempt – by which point he had already secured at least the silver medal – he tried to execute the backside double-cork 1620, another trick which had never been completed in the competition, and fell.
James, who left Australia for the US at the age of 13 to progress his fledgling snowboarding career, remained optimistic in post-final interviews despite his near miss.
“It’s okay to be upset, it’s alright to cry. It’s okay to get frustrated, and it’s okay to not achieve exactly what you want”, he said. “Because tomorrow the sun will rise, I’ll give the medal to my son, he won’t even know what it is, but it’ll be a proud moment to give it to him”.
When asked his ‘why’ for competing, a tearful James continued: “It’s a loaded question. My ‘why’ would be, I want to leave my footprint on the sport, but also the industry. That’s something I strive for every day. It’s what I get up for.
“I’m up there for myself and what I can accomplish in the halfpipe. But also to share that with the people who support me.”
No doubt his biggest fan is his wife, Chloe Stroll, whom he married in 2023 and with whom he welcomed a first child the following year.
Stroll, a Jewish-Canadian singer-songwriter, is the brother of Formula One driver Lance Stroll and is the daughter of multi-billionaire businessman Lawrence Stroll.
Lawrence is the part-owner and executive chairman of Aston Martin and owns the brand’s F1 team, for which Lance, the second-youngest podium finisher in F1 history, races.
Chloe is of Russian-Jewish descent through her father, and James told The Red Flags Podcast in 2024 that he converted to Judaism because “it was important to Chloe and the family”. The pair were married under a chupah.
Podcast co-host Matt Elisofon, who is also Jewish, joked: “You may be one of the best athletes we have!”
After winning his silver, James still has the elusive gold in his sights. In an interview, he said: “I feel like I’m still spearheading this sport and I plan to do so well into the future”.
He also had no regrets about trying a new trick, rather than trying to consolidate the previous one in his final run.
Prior to the Games, he said in a news conference that his “goal this year was to revolutionise snowboarding”.
James’ silver is the second Jewish medal in Italy, after Korey Dropkin secured silver in the mixed doubles curling last week.
Dropkin and his doubles partner Corey Thiesse were narrowly beaten by a pair of Swedish siblings in the final, having seen off Italy in the semi-final, and produced a strong run through the round robin stage.
Their medals were the US’ first ever medals in the event. Thiesse also became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in any curling event.
James and Dropkin are just two of a host of Jewish and Israeli athletes competing at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, which ends on 22 February.
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