Coady claims first World Cup medal

Courtesy: www.owia.org

Junior Snowboard World Champion Tess Coady has started the year with a bang after taking bronze in the Slopestyle World Cup final in Snowmass, Colorado on Friday.

The 17-year-old is the first Australian snowboarder to win a Slopestyle World Cup medal, with Torah Bright previously being the only Aussie medallist in the discipline after taking bronze in the 2013 World Championships.

Coady was “so hyped” to finish the day in third place and to step up onto her first World Cup podium.

“I can’t even describe it,” she said.

“Practice was rough, everyone was knuckling so much so it was really sketchy and then I made a decision to pull out the bottom jump which was pretty good.”

After a “pretty mellow” first run, Coady spent most of Friday’s finals in second place before her third run briefly bumped her into the top spot with a best score of 75.43

“My second run had some problems with speed because of the wind,” she said.

“In my third run I did a trick I haven’t done all season which I was pretty nervous about, I just haven’t had a good chance to do any this year because sometimes my first run’s a bit sketchy but I was STOKED!”

Kiwi Christy Prior ultimately ended the day in first place with a score of 77.06, while 16-year-old and current world number one Reira Iwabuchi from Japan finished second with 76.48.

Coady, who is still in high-school, only started competing internationally in 2017 and rose to prominence after claiming both the Big Air and Slopestyle Junior World Championships within the space of two days in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic.

The young gun, who is now ranked fifth overall in Snowboard Slopestyle, has previously said that a combination of nerves, self-belief and big crowds is the key to getting her “amped up” whenever she competes.

With the PyeongChang Winter Olympics just 27-days away Coady now turns her attention to the next World Cup in Laax, Switzerland which will be held from 17 – 19 January.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” she said.

“The last time I was there the course was pretty sweet, pretty long course too kind of like this one but yeah, that should be good fun too so just [going to] go and try and get something down there too.”