Beijing Winter Olympics 2022: The fear driving Australia’s top medal hope Scotty James

A global superstar in his sport, Scotty James has won three world titles, four X Games gold medals and bronze at the 2018 Olympics – all after a bargain buy from his dad during a trip to Canada.

When you watch Scotty James doing his thing at the Beijing Winter Olympics, pause a moment to consider this.

Some of the tricks he does, the head over heels somersaults, the spins and the backflips, if they went catastrophically wrong, they could kill him.

Halfpipe snowboarding may look like the coolest sport at the Olympics but it’s also among the most dangerous because it’s a long, long way to fall and ice is a cold and unforgiving surface to crash land on.

James makes it look as safe as child’s play, almost as though he’s oblivious to the physical danger he’s putting himself in.

That’s possibly his greatest trick, because it hides an uncomfortable truth.

“I’m always scared,” he told News Corp. “I deal with fear every day.

“I know it’s almost vulnerable to announce that to the world but I’m okay with saying it because I’m going up on the mountain and I’m doing things that are incredibly scary and it gets my adrenaline pumping and my fear is going through the roof.”

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Scotty James in full flight during the 2018 Winter Olympics. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

James isn’t the only Winter Olympian wracked by fear. It’s a common emotion for high performance athletes, but what makes him so different is that he’s happy to talk about and has an unconventional way to deal with it.

“Because what I do on the mountain scares me, I’ve got to find something that scares me away from that so I can keep pushing myself,” he said.

“So for example, I hate public speaking, it scares me, but I do it all the time because I want to be scared, I want to be uncomfortable.

“Then when I’m snowboarding, I remind myself I’ve done these things before so fear is something I feel all the time, not just on the mountain, it’s a part of my life. That’s how I deal with it.”

Being able to overcome his phobia has its benefits.

The best snowboarders in the world get the biggest rewards because they also take the biggest risks.

A global superstar in his sport, James has won three world titles, four X Games gold medals and a bronze medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics when he was selected to carry the Australian flag at the Opening ceremony.

For a kid raised in suburban Melbourne, who got into the sport when his dad bought him a $10 display board during a trip to Canada, he’s done all right for himself.

He lives a lifestyle beyond his wildest dreams, and travels the globe, competing in front of huge crowds and hanging out with the rich and famous.

He has managed to keep himself grounded too, retaining a clean cut image, but with an edge, wearing his signature red boxing gloves and shadow boxing before taking off on his runs.

That’s put him in high demand from sponsors so he isn’t short of a dollar.

His world away from snowboarding is good too. He’s recently become engaged to Chloe Stroll, the sister of Formula One driver Lance Stroll and daughter of Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll.

James after receiving the bronze medal in the Men's Snowboard Halfpipe at the PyeongChang games. Picture: Dan Himbrechts

He’s also won three world titles and four X Games gold medals. Picture: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images/AFP

“I’m incredibly grateful for the life I have but I don’t ever forget who I am as a person,” he said.

“I am Scotty James. I’m from Warrandyte, Australia, and I’m just seeing how far I can go.

“I surround myself with fantastic people, great coaches, and I work my arse off, physically and mentally, but I’m also a little bit of a risk taker because that’s pretty much a big part of what I do in my profession.”

James is among the favourites to win the Olympic gold in halfpipe, one of the box-office events in Beijing that will be decided February 11.

Shaun White, the American legend who has won three gold medals, is the defending champion but James’ biggest danger is Japanese sensation Ayumu Hirano, who won a silver in PyeongChang, then competed in skateboarding at last year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

James won the bronze four years ago but wants gold this time. It’s an admission few athletes ever make, mostly because they’re frightened of jinxing their chances of setting themselves up for disappointment.

But fear is James’ constant companion and after three previous trips to the Olympics, his first at Vancouver when he was just 15, he’s not afraid to say what everyone else won’t.

“I’ve committed everything, I’ve committed a lot,” he said.

”I’ve dedicated a lot of my life, a lot of my energy, a lot of my physical and emotional time into doing my best at this Olympic Games.

“And if I commit to my mission and put all that work to fruition, I don’t see why I can’t come out the other side with a smile on my face.”

James and Chloe Stroll were recently engaged. Picture- Nicole Cleary

Part of that pledge meant competing less this season.

A prolific winner on the Word Cup circuit for years, James has been a notable absentee this Winter, focusing almost all his time on training.

The one World Cup event he did enter, in Switzerland earlier this month, suggested he’d made a massive blunder after he qualified first but failed to put down a clean run in the final.

Rattled by his uncharacteristic mistake, he entered the X Games in Colorado a week later and duly won the gold and a vital lesson.

“I was disappointed. It definitely stung quite a bit. But in hindsight, if I needed a little bit of extra motivation, I’ve definitely found it now,” he said.

“I think it was really good for me to realign what my priorities were in terms of the runs and things that I was trying to accomplish.

“And we got it done at X Games so that’s obviously a fantastic, positive position to be in in terms of momentum going into the Games.

“I’m feeling really good and honestly just really keen to get in there and get into the competition at this point.”

Winning the X Games wasn’t the only boost he got in January.

Like everyone in the country, he was inspired by watching Ash Barty win the Australian Open so wants to emulate her achievement in his own sport.

“When you watch someone complete a milestone in their career, you sit there and think ‘I want to do that, I want to have that impact’ and not just in the sport, but also on people that are watching.

“That’s the whole reason why a lot of us do sport. There’s a really cool emotional investment and attachment.

“She’s young, and I can only imagine for her what that felt like to win a grand slam on home soil. Obviously for me, I won’t know that feeling of winning an event in Australia.

“But I admire that. The pressure that she’s under, honestly, is somewhat relatable to kind of how I am at the moment.

“There’s this expectation, but it’s only because it’s coming from a good place and people want you to do well and she was able to manage that really well.”

The extreme nature of action sports means nothing is ever guaranteed but no matter what happens in Beijing, James is already certain about one thing, he’s not giving up his addiction to fear soon.

“I’ll definitely go to another Olympic Games in Milan (2026), and we’ll see after that as well,” he said.

“Obviously, we have the Games coming up but it’s about this one and the next one. That’s how I’m really seeing it. I’ve built a five, six year plan, not a one year plan.

“I’ll go until, as Tom Brady said, he just didn’t quite have that edge anymore, and I’ve got plenty of edge, so I still got a lot more time in the mountains.”

Originally published as Beijing Winter Olympics 2022: The fear driving Australia’s top medal hope Scotty James