Tess Coady, Taking it to the Top – Video Profile

February 3rd, 2022

 

Mountainwatch | Video Profile

When Tess Coady drops into the slopestyle course at Secret Garden on Saturday it is the result of a lot of hard work and commitment that started the morning of the women’s slopestyle event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

Due to the strong and inconsistently gusty winds conditions on the day were questionable and there were suggestions to postpone the event due to safety concerns for the athletes. However that was knocked back due to broadcast commitments and Tess, just 17-years-old and junior World Champ, was competing in her first Olympics and was prepared to go with the flow. Unfortunately, the unpredictable wind lead to her coming up short on a jump during a practise run and she blew her knee. Tess was not only out of the Olympics but off snow for 12 months while she recovered.

 

Tess training in Thredbo last season. Photo: Thredbo

Not one to mope around and feel sorry for herself, Tess not only recovered but she focussed on what she needed to do to get back to an international standard and worked hard to achieve it. Tess returned to competition for the 2019-2020 World Cup season and won her first World Cup in Sieser Alm Italy, which was also the first win by an Australian in snowboard slopestyle.

Any thoughts that due to the long lay off she wasn’t at the performance level required to mix it with the world’s best were quickly dismissed.

 

Tess Coady, taking it the top off her game at the Olympics this week. Photo: Thredbo

Tess has another strong year last season, winning bronze at the World Championship in Aspen and she finished the season rated number three in the world. It was a long way from the young kid from St Kilda whose passion for snowboarding took hold in Mt Buller.

Tess will be competing in both big air and slopestyle and goes into the Beijing Games on the back of a World Cup slopestyle victory in Laax, Switzerland last month and a sixth place in her first X Games in Aspen. We recently caught up with Tess during a break in pre-Olympic training in Laax.