The Scott James Miracle

January 26th, 2010


It took more than an injured teammate to get 15 year old Scotty James to make the team for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. He is the Youngest male Australian Winter Olympian in history and the youngest Snowboard Olympian ever.

After a long 6-months on tour and a failed campaign to achieve Olympic Team selection, 15 Year-old Scott James was back in Australia and happily enjoying being a 15-year old kid again wakeboarding at his mate Ethans’ farm.

At about the same time a call came through to his family home and Scott’s mother answered – it was his coach and mentor Ben Bright in the USA, the news was bitter sweet. Australia’s top medal hope in the Men’s snowboard Halfpipe Nate Johnstone, had just broken his leg in a training accident and there was an outside chance for Scotty to make the Olympic team in Nate’s place. Ben had made some calls to Ski and Snowboard Australia CEO, Michael Kennedy and also to the national head snowboard coach Ben Wordsworth who both confirmed Scott’s eligibility.

But there were two small details; first Scott had to compete at a World Cup event in Eastern Canada (the opposite side of the globe) in only 2 days time. And then he had to record a 19th place finish or better to qualify for the vacant spot left by Nate Johnstone’s misfortune.

Time was against Scotty, but with some quick thinking and fast packing he was on a plane first thing the next morning from Melbourne International. 20 hours of flying later and the 15 year-old hopeful finally arrived in Quebec City at 9:20pm the night before the event and made his way to Stoneham resort. He had missed all the crucial practice days where ‘getting used to the pipe’ is usually of utmost importance for a solid day of competition.

Nevertheless early the next morning after only a few hours sleep, Scotty managed to squeeze in a quick 20 minutes of practice before the main event. He then went on to nail 15th place with a single five-hit run through the cold icy halfpipe (Method, Front 7, Cab 7, front 9 and backside 540). He had done it, the dream he had all but given up on was again a reality.

Scotty is now in Salt Lake City where he is on call for the Winter X-Games in Colorado at the end of this week. His coach Ben Bright is at the X with defending gold medalist (Australia’s world champion female snowboarder), his sister Torah Bright, all of who form a solid network of support around the young Scotty that has attributed to his fast rise to success.
When Scott flies to Vancouver in just over 2 weeks, he’ll pull on the green and gold team tracksuit for the first time and be the youngest ever snowboarder to compete at a Winter Olympic Games.