I spoke to Val Guselli just before the medal ceremony. He said the final was “the craziest level of halfpipe snowboarding in history.”
There were many crashes and many riders were unable to record their times. Guselli and James crashed twice.
“I think when it comes to something like this, everyone wants to win, and…we all just jumped on it a little bit,” he explained to Nine’s James Bracey.
“Even Scotty, you know, he didn’t get the first one. (He) pushed really hard, and unfortunately he didn’t get the last one.”
Guselli’s final run was incredible and his 88 points were enough to secure him fifth place.
“You always want to put on a show, especially if you haven’t won,” he told Nine’s James Bracey.
Valentino Guselli finished fifth. getty
“It was a great night. We made one of the best runs ever. That’s always a good thing. I think we had the best atmosphere of the night, so I’ll take that. This is a big win.”
“My philosophy on snowboarding is to aim for the biggest thing possible, and I’m glad I was able to do that tonight.”
Guselli, who is only 20 years old, doesn’t think he has the technique to be on the podium tonight. His humility is why he is loved in Australia.
“I don’t really have any tricks that I’m comfortable doing there, at least not tonight,” he said.
“So I tried to put all my eggs in the amplitude basket. On the first and second runs, I got ahead of myself in speed and lost speed.”
“But whatever…I might see you in slopestyle.”