Valentino Makes History As Matt Double Podiums

Teen snowboard prodigy and NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holder Valentino Guseli has created history to become only the fourth snowboarder to podium in all three park and pipe disciplines of big air, slopestyle and halfpipe, and the first rider to ever achieve the feat in the one season after a double podium performance in Mammoth Mountain, USA.

With each discipline becoming so specialised, Valentino’s achievement is truly extraordinary at just 17-years-of-age, as no other rider is capable of performing in more than one event at such a high level.

Competing in the best of three run halfpipe final, Guseli’s put down his highest scoring run first up with 85.25 points.

Valentino’s run began with the massive switch method that has been his signature this season, before going switch frontside 1080 indy, then a frontside 1260 tail grab, a backside 900 weddle, and finally a near-perfect frontside 1440 tail grab.

Japanese rider Ruka Hirano finished in first place with a score of 91.50 points, with American Chase Blackwell taking the final spot on the podium in third with 84 points.

Valentino was then scheduled to quickly back up his halfpipe performance by competing in the slopestyle final straight after, but unfortunately increasing high winds forced the event to be cancelled due to rider safety.

This meant that results from the qualification round ran three days earlier would stand as the final results, which had Guseli in second place with a score of 81.50 in his first run, with American Dusty Henricksen taking the win with a score of 88.68 and his teammate Chris Corning in third with 81.33.

“I’m just super hyped to have landed my tricks this week and got some pretty good results,” Valentino said before slopestyle awards, downplaying his history-making week, “It’s a little bit unfortunate we didn’t get to have at it today in slopestyle, but I’m happy pipe ran and I’m happy with my riding.”

Pushed to consider all the great riders who had come before him and not accomplished what he’s done this season, Guseli dove into it a little further.

“Wow. I guess I’m not really feeling it too much yet, but I’m honoured. I’m so hyped. I just want to keep pushing – for podiums, wins, records…I guess (laughing). But really I just want to keep loving my life and snowboarding and hanging out with awesome people and being in awesome situations like this one.”

Valentino’s other World Cup podium performance this season came in December with a big air gold medal in Edmonton, Canada, and he also won his first ever X-Games medal with a bronze in Aspen, USA, last week.

The snowboard athletes will now head to Calgary, Canada, for the next round of World Cup competition, which will include a halfpipe event on February 10 and slopestyle on February 12.

Meanwhile in the USA, fellow NSWIS scholarship holder Matt Graham has rounded out an exceptional weekend of competition for Australian athletes, taking home a silver medal this afternoon in the dual mogul event in Deer Valley.

For Matt, it was his second medal of the weekend, after earlier recoding victory in the single moguls with teammate Jakara Anthony, Danielle Scott also won aerial skiing gold at the Deer Valley resort and Valentino’s halfpipe and slopestyle medals making it an impressive six in total.

Article and image courtesy of OWIA