Redemption yesterday, freedom today: Tess Coady wins Australia's first Winter Olympics medal at Beijing 2022
Published Sun 06 Feb 2022
SNOWBOARD: Tess Coady has become Australia's first medallist of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, taking out the bronze medal in the women's snowboard slopestyle at the Genting Snow Park.
It was pure elation for the 21-year-old from St Kilda in Melbourne, which finally puts the injury disappointment at PyeongChang 2018 behind her as she's become Australia's youngest woman to win a Winter Olympic medal.
Tess showed poise and skill beyond her years to post her bronze-medal clinching run, 84.15, on her last run in the competition. The score positioned her to occupy third position, after which she had to endure a nervous wait for the remaining competitors to potentially bump Tess off a podium finish.
She completed the podium with New Zealand's gold medallist Zoi Sadwoski Synnott who scored 92.88 and silver medallist Julia Marino from the United States of America whose best score from the judges was 87.68.
The bronze medal for Tess goes down as Australia's first ever Olympic medal in the snowboard slopestyle competition.
"That was wild, that was so insane," Tess said.
"Making it to the finals is always a win. Last night I was chatting to a friend and he said to me that I finally earned my ticket to freedom from the last four years.
"I really just took that mentality into today.
"I came back and got my redemption yesterday. Today I just wanted to have the best time and enjoy it the most and just send it."