Tess Coady banishes ghosts of Pyeongchang to make snowboard slopestyle finals at Beijing Winter Olympics

Four years ago, Tess Coady was not at the start line of the women’s snowboard slopestyle competition in PyeongChang.

The then-17-year-old was on the Olympic team but she heartbreakingly suffered an ACL injury in training, an hour after which the course was closed due to strong winds.

Now the two-time World Cup winner is set for a shot at Olympic glory, having qualified in eighth spot for tomorrow’s final in brilliant sunshine on the Zhangjiakou mountains.

Coady acknowledged there was a degree of redemption in finally competing at a Games, four years after she was first selected to do so.

“It’s nice to get some redemption at this event,” she said, clad in a balaclava that was part “swag”, part “intimidation” but mostly to save her “dying” nose from the biting cold at the Genting Snow Park.

“It’s always good to land two runs.”

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However, the uber-relaxed 21-year-old was not thinking about the disappointment of South Korea ahead of her run. She was preoccupied with a more recent stack.

“I, like, died in practice,” she said.

“I kind of got smoked. I’m so sore.

“I was too busy thinking about that to think about anything else.

“So, yeah, it wasn’t really that emotional, but it was nice to make finals. I think.”

She had made finals, although she didn’t know it then.

Coady was the third athlete out of 30 to go down the course, scoring 55.98 on her first run before leaping up the standings with a 71.13 after a cleaner second run.

That Coady was not concerned about a possible injury repeat says as much about her easygoing attitude as her focus.

That’s because the artistically designed course, complete with a “Great Wall” windshield covering the rails area, has already claimed one casualty, Rina Yoshika of Japan, who suffered a spinal injury on Thursday and has been ruled out of the Games.

Coady can empathise but says the thought of suffering an injury does not enter her mind when she’s about to race.

“You can’t really think about that because that kind of stuff happens at every event,” she said.

“And it sucks and it’s really hard. I’ve been in that position, so I know what it’s like.

“That’s pretty rough, but she’ll bounce back. She’s so talented.”

Coady was just as effusive about all her competitors, including New Zealand star Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, who was the best qualifier with a tremendous score of 86.75 – far ahead of her rivals.

Should Sadowski-Synnott repeat or even better that tally tomorrow, she could become New Zealand’s first Winter Olympic gold medallist

“Zoi is so sick. She’s so inspiring and super fun to watch ride,” Coady said.

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“We vibe super hard so we were just chilling at the top.

“It’s a pretty chilled vibe — it’s not this like crazy stone-faced competition stuff — so it’s sick when all the homies get through and get to ride together tomorrow.

“You can always count on [Zoi] to throw down, so I’m sure it will be pretty sick tomorrow.”

Coady has not counted out her chances though and has already turned her attention to tomorrow’s final.

“I’ve definitely got more to give, so that’s good,” she said.

“It wasn’t the cleanest run I’ve ever done but it was pretty good.

“I think we get like, three runs, so that will be sick. Everyone is going to be chucking it, so it’s going to be really good.”