Aussie Coady fit and firing in time for Italy Winter Olympics
Fully-fit Australian snowboard medallist Tess Coady is looking forward to competing in the Winter Olympics next month in Italy after a torrid run with injury.
Last time she won bronze while competing with a fractured ankle, so there's no reason why Australian snowboard star Tess Coady can't add to her medal collection when she lines up for her second Olympics in February.
Coady became Australia's youngest-ever Winter Olympic medallist when she finished third in the slopestyle event as a 21-year-old at the 2022 Beijing Games.
After the event Coady revealed she had suffered the ankle injury in her warm-up before the qualifying round.
It was almost a case of history repeating with Coady tearing her ACL in the final practice before she was supposed to make her Olympic debut four years earlier in Pyeongchang.
Now 25, Coady also had a shoulder reconstruction last year which ended her World Cup season and battled lingering concussion symptoms, but is finally injury free ahead of the Milan-Cortina Games, which get underway on February 6 (local time).
"Injuries are definitely a pretty challenging thing but when you're in the world of winter sport it's something you accept is part of it," said Coady, currently training in St Moritz in Switzerland.
"I've had no ongoing issues and am feeling good."
The Victorian will compete in the slopestyle and big air events in Livigno, which is in the Rhaetian Alps near the Swiss border.
In slopestyle competitors complete tricks on a downhill course that consists of various man-made obstacles such as jumps and rails.
In big air boarders launch themselves off a large jump and are judged on trick difficulty, execution, amplitude and landing.
While slopestyle is her favoured event, Coady showed she could also be in medal contention in the big air with some promising results in her return to competition.
Making the final in two World Cup events in China, her best finish was fourth behind an all-Japanese podium headed by Mari Fukada.
"I was super happy; it's good to make a couple of finals and get a couple of good results," Coady told AAP.
"The first event was super fun and like a really good jump and then second one was a bit tricky with the snow and stuff so still pretty happy.
"Slopestyle is definitely my favourite — big air is pretty fun and it definitely comes with quite a different dynamic to the slopestyle.
"But yeah, I really enjoy slopestyle and just being able to ride a longer course and do some more tricks and stuff and just try and link everything together."
She will ramp up preparations for the Games with a World Cup in Aspen in the Unites States, which gets underway on January 9, competing in slopestyle.
Olympic organisers are building a new course and big air jump at the Livigno Snow Park and Coady said it would be a fresh challenge with no test events held, and was unsure of her medal prospects.
"I'm super keen for Livigno and I've been there a few times before and traditionally they've had a really great park, but where the comp is going to be is in a little bit of a different spot.
"That'll be a bit new and different, but yeah, looking forward to getting back there as I've had some really good memories there.
"With the medals, because it's all judged, it's very out of your control so the focus is on getting a really good run down that I can be happy with."
AAP
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