Meet James 'Woodsy' Woods: is he Team GB's greatest Winter Olympic medal hope in Pyeongchang?

James Woodsy Woods
In action at Cardrona Mountain in 2015

When James “Woodsy” Woods won the first ski slopestyle World Cup event of the season at the weekend in Cardrona, New Zealand, following his X Games gold medal in Aspen last winter, it confirmed his position as one of the very best freestyle skiers on the planet, and a serious contender to win an Olympic medal in skiing slopestyle at PyeongChang.

His track record of slopestyle results includes three World Cup wins between 2012 and 2015, and two bronze medals last season, at the European X Games and Freestyle World Championships. His form in the discipline was made even more convincing over the weekend with his World Cup win in New Zealand.

His X Games gold win was in ski big air, which is not an Olympic discipline, but the skills are transferable as Woods will need to pull some big, technical jumps out of the bag in the slopestyle event at the Games.

Woods has used his success to promote grassroots skiing in the UK, something he’s passionate about. In the autumn of 2016 he brought with him to the UK a crowd of top freestyle skiers for the Only Mad Dogs and Englishmen Tour. The road trip started at the Bearsden in Glasgow where Woods introduced his international buddies to the delights of dry slope skiing. They headed to Yorkshire and the indoor snow of Snozone in Castleford, then visited the abandoned remains of Woods’ old stomping ground the Sheffield Ski Village, before finishing the tour with more indoor shredding at Tamworth Snowdome. This year he’s hooking up with Planks Clothing for a talent ID tour of the dry slopes.

Woods started skiing aged 10 at Sheffield dry ski slope after responding to an advert in the local newspaper. Although none of his family or friends were skiers, Woods was immediately hooked. At the time Sheffield Ski Village, now in disrepair, had the best facilities in the UK for freestyle skiing, including a halfpipe, a couple of kickers, a moguls run and even a big air ramp with a landing into water.  

Four years later, and Woods had already dedicated his life to the sport. “Freestyle skiing got me too early to be thinking about doing anything else,” he says. Woods spent his GCSE year skiing and studying in Mayrhofen, Austria, and studied for his A-Levels via email from Breckenridge in Colorado. At 19 his hard work and dedication brought an early reward – a bronze in slopestyle at the  2011 European X Games in Tignes.

When it was announced skiing slopestyle would be introduced to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics it brought a whole new dimension to the sport. Woods embraced the Olympic spirit wholeheartedly, attending the London Olympics in 2012 as a spectator to soak up the atmosphere: “I shouted myself hoarse watching speed walking, it was honestly the coolest experience I have ever witnessed.”  

Going into the 2014 Winter Olympics, Woods, who shaved a Union Flag into his haircut for the event, was the reigning World Cup title-holder in slopestyle and one of the favourites to medal at the Games.

Woodsy podium
Woodsy is one of Team GB's medal hopefuls for the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea

Unfortunately on the first day of official training on the Sochi course disaster struck: “I just went massive on one of the jumps. I got taken by a gust of wind, missed the entire landing and came down really hard.” Woods damaged the cartilage and ligaments in his hip joint.

“Skiing the event was awful. I had a lot of pain and everyone on Team GB worked really hard to get me to a level where I could compete. I was proud as can be to represent the UK and do my bit, but there is a lot left to prove and I’m going to take that into PyeongChang.”  Woods struggled to a very respectable fifth place in Sochi, despite the injury.

In between competitions, Woods spends his life chasing the snow and the best training conditions – it is clearly a nomadic lifestyle he embraces. “I’m trying not to tie myself down. I’ve got an amazing group of friends on the circuit that I travel the world with and there’ll be plenty of time when I retire to see my friends and family back in Sheffield. Right now I’m going to milk this thing because it’s too good to be true.”  

The longest period of the year Woods spends in any one place is Wanaka, New Zealand, where he trains for a couple of months over the southern hemisphere winter at Cardrona Mountain. It was there that Woods took his first slopestyle gold of the season on August 27, after qualifying for the finals in second place and overcoming windy conditions to lead the field of 16 of the world’s best freestyle skiers - it’s the second time he’s won gold at the FIS event.

When he’s not skiing his other great passion is surfing. “It’s a great way to stay fit, and to work through an injury or strain that comes with skiing, and it’s great to go from one adrenalin-rush sport to another.”

One imagines there won’t be too much relaxing this year though as the sport of slopestyle has evolved and progressed dramatically in the four years since the Sochi Olympics, and Woods is at the forefront. His coach Pat Sharples explains. “He’s executing the biggest tricks in freeskiing right now, but what makes me so excited is that he can do them as consistently as the tricks he was doing in Sochi. He has a massive variety of triple corks, spinning in both directions and taking off forward or switch. He is the only skier in the world that can pull the switch triple cork 1440 octograb – his big signature trick.”  

To give you an idea of what the trick involves, imagine lying on your back with skis on. Grab the tip of one ski and the tail of the other, then bring the tail around so that your hands are together with your skis parallel, but with one ski facing forward and one backwards. Still with me? Now consider holding that position while you flip three times and spin around four times flying 30m through the air.

That trick helped Woods win his big air X Games gold medal in Aspen – the fulfilment of a childhood dream. The atmosphere and the prestige of the event brought out the very best in him. Woods was lying in second place to Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut and going into his third and final jump with the best two of three scores counting. Woods knew he had nothing to lose and pulled out his now signature trick, to tie on 88 points and win on a recount.

He says, “I didn’t know that I could actually do it so good. It’s a very technical trick and I always thought that it would be really dangerous to do the full grab in the middle of a triple cork spin, because the whole gyroscope effect is pulling you off-axis and you’re in a very compromising position.”

Sharples is hoping to introduce this trick to Woods’ slopestyle runs next season.

Buoyed by this result and a further slopestyle bronze from the European X Games in Hafjell, Norway, Woods travelled to the World Freestyle and Snowboard championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain, an event beset by warm weather, poor snow conditions and injuries. Woods took bronze in the slopestyle competition, after crashing in his final run. Coach Sharples was pleased with his athlete’s performance, but less so with the event. “The World Championships was the most dangerous, crappy course we skied all season. Conditions were horrendous and the speed was all over the place, yet Woodsy put down one of his best ever technical runs.” If it had not been for the bobble on the rail, which was a course design fault, I think he would have taken the gold.”  

Fortunately, conditions in South Korea in February 2018 promise to be conducive to a safe and fair slopestyle competition. Although the freestyle and snowboard venue, Bokwang, averages a mere 10cm annual snowfall, it is consistently cold enough to make plenty of snow. “I think PyeongChang will be fantastic, the people are so polite and hospitable, says Woods. “The organisers proved at the test event in 2016 that they can produce a great quality park for everyone to throw down, and it will be safe and fair. It’s then up to us to get crazy on it. I’m buzzing. I can’t wait. Let me at it!”

Woods’ main rivals 

Norway’s Oystein Braaten has progressed over the last four years since he placed tenth in Sochi, scoring an X Games bronze in 2016, and gold last season. Jossi Wells from New Zealand is also a strong contender, off the back of winning slopestyle at the X Games last season.

The Americans will again be strong: Gus Kenworthy, Bobby Brown, McRae Williams, Nick Goepper and the reigning Olympic champion Joss Christensen. Only four can start for the USA so competition will be tight to even make it to the Games.

When to watch Woods at the Winter Olympics

Ski slopestyle qualifications and finals, February 18 2018

This interview was conducted at The British Championships in Laax, Switzerland courtesy of Swiss International Airlines.

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