At a low point in 2017, Scotty James revived his career with a pair of bright-red boxing gloves. His biggest fight awaits

Early in 2017, Scotty James was at a low point in his career when he walked into his wardrobe and locked his eyes on a bright-red pair of boxing gloves.

There they were, a pair of Everlast mitts, shining down at the Aussie snowboarding pro "like a halo", as he puts it in his recently released Netflix documentary.

"I'm going to wear these this week and be like I'm coming out to fight'," he says in Pipe Dream, recalling the moment years later.

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James, 22 when he dug out the gloves, felt until that point in his career he'd been riding on talent alone. He felt he was "just another number", as he says in the documentary. Letting his family down, even.

James was filthy with himself — so much so that after a lousy result at the 2016 US Open at Vail Fountain, Colorado, he smashed his helmet to smithereens back at his hotel room.

He received a bill for plastering repairs.

Determined to draw a line in the sand, or snow, in Aspen at the 2017 X Games, he strutted out to compete with those bright-red Everlast gloves, ready to fight like a boxer.

In Italy's north at the Winter Olympic Games this week, James will slip his hands into a pair of bright-red gloves — they've been a staple of his competition kit since that moment in 2017, but are produced through his own brand nowadays — and walk out for the biggest fight of his career.

His fight for the only trophy cabinet item he doesn't own — an elusive Olympic gold medal.

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.

"Yeah, I think about it quite often," James smiled, speaking with Wide World of Sports at a Red Bull media day during the build-up to the Milano Cortina Games.

But, James stressed, he thinks about it a lot "in a healthy way".

"Like, I don't act in desperation, or I'm not hugely emotional about it," the 31-year-old said.

"I think where I can get emotional is when you probably overload my plate or try and do too many things at once instead of focusing on the goal, which is to do very well at the Olympics."

Heading into this year's Aspen X Games, held late last month, James was already the warm favourite to claim Olympic gold in the halfpipe at Milano Cortina.

He then captured his fifth consecutive X Games gold, and did so with a never-seen-before combination of tricks: a switch backside 1440 into a backside 1440.

For James, gold medals on the World Cup, world championship and X Games scenes have stockpiled like presents on Christmas Eve.

That he also owns Olympic silver, and bronze, makes his iron-willed hunt for Olympic gold all the more compelling.

"Naturally, being able to win a bronze and a silver, there's a stone left unturned, and as a competitor and as someone with big aspirations, naturally, the next thing is to win a gold, so I do think about it a lot," James said.

"But I also think about what I need to actually do to make it happen, rather than just obsessing over, well, 'How will I feel if it happens?'

"I've achieved everything that I said I want to, bar this."

Not all Olympic gold-medal favourites have the eyes of the world on them.

As a regular on the Formula 1 grid, the son-in-law of billionaire Aston Martin F1 boss Lawrence Stroll, the subject of a popular Netflix documentary, and an athlete whose commercial partners include Red Bull, Oakley and Tommy Hilfiger, the eyes of the world are beaming down on James.

The Melburnian suits up for qualifying at Livigno Snow Park on Thursday morning (AEDT). On Saturday morning, he shoots for gold.

"I embrace the fear, the pressure, everything about competing," James said, "rather than trying to run away from it."

When he's humming away in his flow state, fear and pressure melt away.

"You don't even really think about it," he said.

"You're just there, you're present, you're in the environment, you feel good, you're happy about everything, and you get after it.

"It feels like everything you do is right," he added, chuckling.

"Those huge moments, and those moments when you see great things in sport happen, is usually when someone's in flow state, and it's very cool to look at it in that perspective."

For James, key to being able to tap into his flow state is ensuring he's supremely prepared, and his life out of the halfpipe is going swimmingly.

"Doing the physical and mental preparation over months and months is a huge part of it," said James, who's set for his fifth Olympic campaign, 16 years after debuting in Vancouver as a fresh-faced 15-year-old with a Justin Bieber-like fringe.

"Setting yourself up with a run that can win in all conditions brings on flow state. You get a lot of mental freedom from that. If you have things holding you to ransom, it's very hard to get there.

"And then everything being good at home — being good with my family at home and work, and everything else off the mountain — is important to getting to that flow state, too, because you don't have any distractions."

His brother Tim, on board as his manager, takes care of a lot of business. His other brother Sean travels around the globe as his content man.

James and his wife, Chloe Stroll, the sister of F1 driver Lance Stroll, got married in 2023. A year later, they welcomed their baby boy Leo into the world.

"I probably emphasise more so what's happening off the mountain rather than on. I feel like I'm always in a good place to do what I love every day when I'm snowboarding on the mountain. I can navigate that," James said.

"Whereas things off the mountain can definitely define how you feel on the hill, so making sure that you're on top of all of them ... definitely has an impact on how much you can really lean into that flow state when you get on the mountain."

The Aussie favourite is sure to be locked in come go time in Italy, ready to fight in his trusty bright-red gloves.