'I wanted to push it': Scotty James admits he could have won gold with an easier trick after insane final moment

LIVIGNO: Scotty James said in his pre-event press conference that he didn't need a gold medal to vindicate his convictions about pushing the limits of halfpipe snowboarding.

He put all his chips on the table in the Milano Cortina 2026 final and it might just have cost him a breakthrough gold medal, with the Australian superstar failing to land the final trick of the event - an audacious backside double cork 1620 Japan.

Had he landed it he would have registered a ridiculous score, probably close to 100, due to the sheer degree of difficulty of the combinations he chose.

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The question that will always hang over that final hit will be whether or not he needed to go quite so big. Had he pulled it back from a 1620 to a 1440 and landed it cleanly the sense was it probably would have been enough to pip Japanese star Yuto Totsuka for gold.

James admitted as much speaking to Australian media, including Wide World of Sports, after the medal presentation.

"Potentially could have done it with a 14 but for myself I had to do the 16," James said.

"I wanted to push it and that's what I was here to do, regardless of the result. I think there's obviously a lot, on myself mostly, but we all knew what I was coming here to do. And I wasn't really thinking about that so much, I was thinking about that run, that last run that I tried to do and I wasn't able to land it. It was really going to be for me that run but I'll have to keep pushing it in the future I guess."

It's a telling comment. The only way to interpret it is that gold wasn't good enough for James. If he had finally stood atop the podium at a Winter Olympics but hadn't attempted the hardest trick he knew how to land in his gold medal run he would have had regrets.

Only an athlete as hellbent as revolutionising his sport as James could really understand that mindset and after it determined his fate, the 31-year-old seemed somewhat conflicted.

"I'm just a bit numb, like I don't really know how to feel," he said. "It all happens and then you get a medal and then you're walking around here and, I mean, the next 24 hours I'll probably have a bit of a cry, but I'll be happy as well, because representing the country and winning a medal is unbelievable and I'm really proud of that.

"What I can live with is that I tried my best and tried to do a run here on my last run here that was my aim and I was unable to land it. It's on me, so all good."

Watch the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 live and free on Channel 9 and 9Now. Plus, every event live & on demand, every medal in 4K, and exclusive international coverage on Stan Sport.

James' extraordinary final run that came unstuck in the last possible moment wasn't dramatic enough, just metres in front of the Australian star as he hung above the halfpipe an overhead cable snapped and dropped into the area just in front of him, cutting a swathe through the media area.

From the vantage point in front of the halfpipe it appeared that the equipment malfunction may have even been in James' eyeline and possibly could have been grounds to redo his final run.

"Everyone's talking about the cable, I should blame it on the cable maybe," he said, confirming that he wasn't aware of it until it was brought up afterwards.

While James' final run of the final will be the enduring talking point, he may have sealed the gold medal on his first run of the final had he been able to ride out of the final hit, which he very nearly landed.

Like his final run, James had put together a superb and highly technical first run until he got to the final trick but he couldn't get his weight far enough forward to nail the landing, piling the pressure on him to bank a high score with his second run.

He did that, jagging a 93.50 that put him in second place, 1.50 behind Totsuka's gold medal winning second run 95.00.

However, even though the judges rewarded him with a big score due to the high degree of difficulty of his run, James was marked down for two sloppy landings in a run that was noticeably less clean than Totsuka's.

James conceded he had made life difficult for himself by failing to complete his first run of the final.

"I wasn't feeling great on the last hit a few times tonight," James said.

"I came unstuck in training as well, it's not to blame, but I wish I had a little bit more momentum, it would have helped me just build a little bit more," he said.

"To not land the first run, it's a shame, because I think from an execution standpoint it could have maybe got me those extra few points but it is what it is."

At 31, James is already well and truly in the 'veteran' category in the world of halfpipe snowboarding and has now won more Winter Olympic medals than any other Australian with two silvers and a bronze. Somewhat staggeringly, however, he is committed to continuing on to a sixth Olympic Games, with the next one to be held in the French Alps in 2030.

"Definitely, I'd love to compete in France," he said.

"Look I feel mentally really good, physically great, that's the two things that can be a struggle in sport. I've really looked after my body, and most importantly I love the sport, I love halfpipe, and absolutely have no intent of thinking about anything else than continuing to compete, which is what I love to do, and I look forward to the next event, the next opportunity."

By the next Olympic Games James will be 35, while his protégé Valentino Guseli will be coming into his prime as a 24-year-old.

James said Guseli's progress had been "unbelievable" and he captured the imagination of the crowd with three runs in the final that started with the highest airs of the night, eventually completing his third run to finish fifth with a best score of 88.00.

"I was watching his riding in practice and as always he's riding explosive and I always love watching him," James said.

"We've had a pretty similar journey. We've obviously both had to learn about strength in adversity and being in the pipe and being competitors and where we come from and I'm very stoked, proud to be an Australian snowboarder tonight."

Guseli may still have one event to come at Milano Cortina 2026, as the first alternate for the slopestyle competition, meaning that if any of the athletes who have qualified for the event pull out, he'll be in.

The 20-year-old was excited about the prospect of continuing his journey but said that if that didn't eventuate he'd return as a more polished product in 2030.

"I think experiences here but also just life experiences in the last four years and taking them and moving forward," Guseli said.

"Really like planning things out thoroughly and following that plan and getting these tricks that I need, I think tonight I really relied on my amplitude because there were tricks that I was missing that other people did.

"So, yeah, continuing, maybe work on amplitude but also get some bigger tricks. I don't know, we'll see, anything can happen."