Schoolgirl Ally Hickman seventh in slopestyle

Ally Hickman put in a brave performance in the Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Final to round out her Olympic debut. The 16-year-old Sydney schoolgirl laid down a seamless opening run to score 67.70 and sit in fourth position after the first of three runs.  

The wind picked up in her second run and Hickman fell on a top rail, injuring her sternum and was unable to complete the course. She was attended to by medical staff and bravely returned to the top for a third run.  

Hickman’s final run in the best-of-three format was super clean run from the top, but she could not land her front 10 given her speed into the last jump. She landed too high on the knuckle and didn’t have enough time to rotate, rolling down the landing. 

“I’m feeling so good, a bit bummed that I didn’t land my last run, but I’m feeling stoked,” Hickman said. 

“I’m very proud of how I went. I’m happy I landed my first run, I tried to go for it on my second run, but it didn’t quite go to plan. But my third run, just the last jump was a bit slow unfortunately.”

Returning for her third and final run after a nasty fall on the second run, Hickman said she was “a bit nervous” but wanted to be courageous. 

“I could see my board mark in the rail beside it and I was like ‘don’t look at it’, but doing that third run felt really good,” she said. “I’d like to think I’m courageous getting back up there after the crash. 

“The last jump was a bit unfortunate, but I laid everything out there and showed the world my snowboarding which was my main thing.” 

Japan won gold and bronze with Mari Fukada in first (87.83), New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski Synnott second (87.48) and Kokomo Murase third (85.80). 

Hickman was embraced by a group of teammates at the end of her remarkable Olympic debut. 

“All the girls are very supportive and we’ve all been competing against each other for a couple of years now, which is such a good sisterhood to have,” she said. 

“We’re going to be definitely supporting each other in the future for a long while.” 

Hickman – a newcomer to the world stage – finished seventh in her first Olympic final. This follows her 15th place finish in Big Air earlier in the Games.   

Hickman said these Games are just the beginning of what she hopes will be a long and successful career. 

“It’s definitely been a wild one, a lot of experiences learnt, and it’s been so amazing to be here at my first Olympics. 

“These Olympics were more of a learning experience and next Olympics I’m going to come back and hopefully go for gold,” Hickman said. 

Australian Olympic Committee