Ski Slopestyle athletes seeking success at Sierra Nevada

Russ Henshaw and Ryley Lucas will form Australia’s two-man Ski Slopestyle contingent at the 2017 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships.

The pair come into the season’s ultimate event having contested each of the five rounds of the 2016/17 Ski Slopestyle World Cup.

Henshaw is on the comeback from injury and is happy with his form. He skied with confidence at the Silvaplana World Cup in Switzerland and finished fifth in his heat. His season best performance came at the Seiser Alm World Cup in Italy where he won bronze.

The Sochi Olympian says his World Championships campaign will also benefit from two days of on-snow training at Switzerland’s Laax ski-resort.

“You only need one or two good days and everything comes back, it’s all muscle memory," Henshaw said.

“I ended up doing a bunch of tricks there that I was happy with so I’m feeling good coming into this event, if I didn’t have those two days I’d be a bit stressed,” he said.

Henshaw already has bronze (2011) and silver (2015) World Championships medals, the latter was won within a year of knee surgery to repair two torn ACLs.

“Where I’m at right now I feel my body’s back to what it was before all that stuff started happening and I feel like I’m skiing like myself,” he said.

“I know I’ve got a lot more to offer and I just need the time on snow to work through it."

21-year old Ryley Lucas made his World Cup debut in 2016 and comes into these World Championships with a full World Cup season under his belt.

He will be looking to finish the season on a high and make a strong World Championships debut.

Ski Slopestyle qualifying is on Friday with the finals to follow on Sunday. The final will be lived streamed on the Ski and Snowboard Australia website from 10.18pm AEDT Sunday night.

Article courtesy OWIA