A snowboarder from Australia? How Scotty James became Winter Olympian

Growing up just outside of Melbourne, Australia, Scotty James was more likely to spot the Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot than snow. For him, the Winter Olympics seemed as accessible as March.

“It’s very unique to be an Australian doing winter sports,” he said. “There are very few of us.”

Unique, but not impossible. Because if he qualifies for the Milan-Cortina Olympics in February, as expected, James will become the first Australian to represent the country at five separate Winter Olympics. If he reaches the podium in the men’s halfpipe, his specialty, he will become the most decorated Winter Olympic athlete in Australian history with three medals.

However, that almost didn’t happen. If his father Phil, an avid snowboarder, hadn’t convinced a Vancouver ski shop employee to sell a miniature scoreboard to 3-year-old Scotty during a family vacation to Canada decades ago, James might still be watching the Winter Olympics on television.

“My parents always made sure I realized how lucky I was to do what I did,” said James, 31, a four-time world champion and the most successful halfpipe rider in history. “And incredible support through it all, through the challenges and through the most recent big moments.”

But James, whose happy, albeit still unfolding, story is told in the film “Scotty James: Pipe Dream,” which will be available on Netflix starting Friday, won’t be the only accidental Olympian to compete in Italy. The Summer Games feature running, jumping, swimming and throwing, activities that can be done virtually anywhere, but many Winter Games disciplines – skiing, figure skating, luge and snowboarding, for example – require ice and snow, which are not accessible to about two-thirds of the world’s population.

That’s why more than 10,000 athletes from more than 200 countries participated in the 2024 Summer Games in Paris and fewer than 3,000, representing about 90 nations, will compete in this winter’s Olympic Games in Italy.

“Africa, a lot of Southeast Asia, South America, a lot of these countries don’t have a winter sports heritage,” said Gene Sykes, president and chairman of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. “Since there is a limit to what all sports must be done on snow or ice, we have to be creative.”

Among the creative ideas that were discussed were adding events such as cross-country running, cycling and indoor sports that could be played anywhere to the Winter Olympics calendar, which would make the Games more universal.

Meanwhile, athletes like alpine skier Richardson Viano from Haiti and figure skater Donovan Carrillo from Mexico will be curiosities in Milan, having traveled arduous, complicated and completely out-of-the-ordinary paths.

James also fits this description, having lived much of his life abroad, traveling to the United States, Canada and Nordic countries in search of mountains, snow and competition. It is an event unknown to Winter Olympic athletes from Europe and North America.

“You know, 80 per cent of the time I wasn’t really in Australia,” said James, who started competing in snowboarding at age 6 and traveling to events at 10. “I was always overseas. My mom was running private lessons in different countries and then I was doing stuff online with my school in Australia.”

There is snow in parts of Australia, but as the country is located in the southern hemisphere, winters there are short and occur during summer in northern climates. So, to stay fit and compete in major events, James had to live according to the Northern Hemisphere calendar, meaning he was overseas from October to May almost every year.

“It was a real task,” he said, “to do it all. »

It was expensive too, but it proved a wise investment as he progressed quickly, turning professional at 14 and making the Australian Olympic team at 15, becoming the country’s youngest male Olympian in 50 years and the youngest male competitor at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Yet on the eve of these Games, James was ready to let all that slide.

“I didn’t like it anymore,” he said. “I would come home and cry to my mom all the time. I wanted to stop. I found myself in this spiral of wanting to come home and have a normal life, go to school and be with my friends.”

It didn’t help that James broke his right wrist during training before the Olympics. But he recovered from his injury and lack of confidence to place 21st; four years later, while still a teenager, he won the first of four halfpipe World Cup titles and was ranked world No. 1.

At age 23, he was chosen to carry the Australian flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, where he won a bronze medal.

Scotty James carried the Australian team flag during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

(Julie Jacobson/Associated Press)

“It is one of the greatest honors for an Olympic athlete to accompany their team to the opening ceremony,” he said. “The first time I watched the Olympics, I remember watching the opening ceremony and I think one of the basketball players brought the team in. And I just remember thinking ‘wow, that must be just a special thing to do.’

“I didn’t know it was potentially on my radar. It’s a moment that lives rent-free in my head, that’s for sure.”

But if James had to leave Australia to become an Olympian, at home, his exploits made him such a celebrity that he is often recognized on the streets of Melbourne or Sydney.

“They remember it for sure, which is really cool,” said a still-childish James. “I’m always amazed when people come up and recognize me or have followed my career. It never gets old.”

It seems neither does James, who turns 32 in July but isn’t yet ready to call his fifth Olympics his last.

“I don’t have a timetable. I don’t give myself an end date,” he said. “Every day when I wake up I think about how I can be better at snowboarding and what I can do to improve. So I really haven’t thought about it at all.”

But James, who is raising his 14-month-old son Leo with his wife Chloe Stroll, a Canadian singer-songwriter and daughter of Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll, has begun preparing for a life beyond the track. Over the past two years, he has published two children’s picture books featuring MOOKi, James’ alter ego who adopted the snowboarder’s childhood nickname and his insistence on always dreaming big.

He is also an investor and brand advisor for MSP Sports Capital, which purchased the X Games – James is a seven-time X Games gold medalist – in 2022, kicking off his transformation from snow boss to business mogul. There is also the Netflix film, directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Patrick Dimon, which will further spread his legend and legacy.

“Usually athletes close the door on their sporting journey and then start investing in their sport. But I want to do it now,” he said. “I can really add value to a company like X Games because I’m always competing. I can talk to the athletes and I can give really good feedback on areas where it can improve.”

However, the contribution he would really like to leave involves creating an environment that would allow the next generation of Australian Winter Olympic athletes to learn and progress in their sport without having to leave home. James did this by building Australia’s only 13ft mini half-pipe for children in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, where he trains when he is in Australia. It’s a project he would like to develop.

“I would love to leave a mark by hopefully opening the door and creating access [for] freestyle sport in Australia,” James said. “Specifically in the winter, to see if we can produce some really great talent in the future.”