'I was really winded': Sixteen-year-old Aussie lifts lid on courageous run that floored Torah Bright

LIVIGNO: Australian teenager Ally Hickman has admitted she was so sore and winded after bruising her sternum in the women's snowboard slopestyle final that she considered quitting the competition with one run to go.

Hickman, 16, has had an outstanding first Olympic Games, finishing 15th in the big air before putting down an outstanding first run 67.70 in the slopestyle final that put her in position to contend for a medal.

A heavy fall on her second run dulled that glimmer of hope but she won widespread admiration for going back to the top of the hill to re-join the competition, putting the pain and the psychological scarring aside to attack the rail that brought her unstuck once again.

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"I was really winded when I fell and I was just trying to catch my breath, but I went off to the side and caught my breath back, and yeah I went back up to the top, we did some, testing to see if I could still like compete and yeah, I did my third run, which I'm so happy about," Hickman told Australian media, including Wide World of Sports on Thursday.

"I was definitely contemplating not doing my third run, but it's the Olympics, you've got to do everything."

Hickman said that as she got into her third run and was approaching the second rail, where she had fallen, she could see her board mark where she slipped off and had to give herself a pep talk to attempt the cab one-plus in her routine.

" ... I could see my board mark in the rail beside it, and I was like, don't look at it," she said.

"But yeah, doing that third run felt really good, and that last jump is just a bit unfortunate, but I laid everything out there and showed the world my snowboarding, which was the main thing."

After executing her trick on the rail that had previously tripped her up, Hickman looked to be putting together a run that could put her back in medal contention.

She landed a frontside 10 with double grab, the most difficult trick she has ever landed in competition, before falling again - this time attempting a backside 720 melon on the final section of the run.

After falling so hard on her second run, Hickman's effort to get back up and go again, incorporating several difficult manoeuvres in a run that could conceivably have put her on the podium won praise from the likes of snowboard halfpipe gold medal winner Torah Bright, who was commentating for Nine.

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Asked about her courage, Hickman said she prided herself on staring down fear.

"Well, I'd like to think I'm courageous," she said. "Getting back up there after the crash, I didn't know whether I was going to do my third run, but doing my third run felt really good and yeah.

"After, like I made it past the second rail, it felt like I was just in like a flow state, which felt so good to like be doing my run again."

Hickman confirmed that she had exceeded her own expectations by making an Olympic final at her first Games and said she was confident she could be a contender in four years time, if she qualifies for French Alps 2030 as a 20-year-old.

"It has definitely inspired me. This Olympics was more of like a learning part, and next Olympics I'm going to come back and hopefully go for gold," she said.

Australian-born Kiwi star Zoi Sadowski-Synnott won her second silver medal of the Games in the snowboard slopestyle, with her third run 87.48 falling just short of Japanese gold medallist Mari Fukada's 87.83. The bronze medal also went to a Japanese athlete after Kokomo Marase scored 85.80, also with her third and final run.