Winter Olympic debutant Meila Stalker has pulled out a trick she only learnt since arriving in Livigno to join Beijing bronze medallist Tess Coady in the women’s big air final, while fellow Aussie teammate Ally Hickman was lucky not to be hit by a drone in the same event.
Hickman wowed the field with her first jump, scoring 85.25 to sit third, but the 16-year-old said she didn’t have another elite-level jump prepared and was thrilled to have an Olympic experience.
She narrowly avoided being hit by a following drone during her first jump.
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“I saw on the replay that I nearly got hit by it but I wasn’t aware of it while I was doing it,” Hickman said.
The trio of global superstars who filled the podium four years ago — Austrian Anna Gasser, New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, and Japan’s Kokomo Murase — all qualified for the medal round on Sunday (Monday AEDT).
Sydney-born Sadowski-Synnott set the standard, lodging a score of 172.25 points from her best two jumps.
But Stalker marked herself as a boarder to watch, entering the 12-strong final ranked sixth.
The 22-year-old from Coolum on the Sunshine Coast fell on her first jump but then laid down a backside double cork 1080 in her second to score 82.25.
She then showed nerves of steel and scored 82.75 on final jump to leap up the leaderboard and was congratulated by Australian superstar Scotty James, who was watching on.
Meila Stalker (l) is congratulated by teammate Ally Hickman. Credit: AAP “It was the first time doing back dub 10 in a competition, so I learned that on the day I came here, so to be able to put it in in comp mode is pretty cool,” Stalker said.
“I had so much anxiety throughout the whole day so I think I’m pretty glad to just kind of breathe through it and just get them down.”
Coady, who won 2022 Olympic bronze in her preferred slopestyle event, was the first athlete off the jump in the third round and then faced a nervous wait before taking the last spot in the finals.
Meila Stalker launched herself into the snowboard big air final in her Olympic debut. Credit: AAP “I felt like I was sitting in a pretty good position at the start of the last run, but then just kept getting bumped lower and lower, which is just the worst when you’re just waiting and there’s like nothing you can do about it,” the St Kilda product said.
The final will be held on Monday morning (5.30am AEDT).
Meanwhile, Australia’s four-time Olympian Alex Ferlazzo finished 18th in the men’s luge while Hugo Hinckfuss and Seve de Campo were 57th and 58th in the men’s skiathlon.