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A 2-time Olympic medalist extended his snowboarding career when he shifted his mindset at 19 years old

Apr 12, 2022, 20:28 IST
Insider
Scotty James.AP Photo/Francisco Seco
  • Australian snowboarder Scotty James won a silver medal on the halfpipe at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
  • The 27-year-old told Insider that a shift in mindset when he was 19 helped him extend his career.
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Longevity is all the rage in high-level athletics, with superstars across the sports world investing more time and money than ever to keep themselves in the game a little bit longer.

For many of these legends — the Tom Bradys, Sue Birds, LeBron Jameses, and other aging icons of sport — the realization that this investment extends their competitive window came as the effects of aging had already begun to set in.

But for Australian snowboarding superstar Scotty James, that lightbulb moment came when he was just 19 years old.

James at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

"I went through a phase where I just really turned a page just in my life and wanting to have a bit more impact in the competitive scene of snowboarding," the 27-year-old James told Insider. "And then that obviously made me think a lot more about what I was eating and how I was recovering and how I was training and all those elements that basically make me perform the best I can, but also just feel good."

James likened his mindset to that of someone putting a lot of energy into preparations for "a wedding coming up or a party or something they wanna look good for." Maybe they start working out more or eating a little bit differently to work towards their goal.

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For James, that goal is competing at the highest levels of snowboarding for "as long as I can, at the highest level I possibly can." Two Olympic medals and nearly a decade atop the sport later, James knows his approach is paying off.

James poses with his silver medal from the 2022 Beijing Olympics.AP Photo/Gregory Bull

"There's a lot of elements that I attribute to being able to stay at the top for a long time," he said. "Every single day... I always ask myself the question, 'Is this helping me achieve my vision?' — which is to be one of the best in my chosen craft for as long as I can — and usually the answer is yes."

"Of course I have guilty pleasures — mine is chocolate, for example," James added. "So I have those, but otherwise I'm definitely switched on, and I do wanna do it for a long time. I do love it."

Recovery is an underrated but crucial component of any athlete's commitment to their craft. For James, partnering with Therabody and using the brand's products daily has been instrumental to his continued success.

James using his Therabody RecoveryAir compression boots.Therabody

He's a big fan of the RecoveryAir compression boots, which he says keep "my legs nice and fresh for the next day to make sure I can keep performing in the way that I want to." And when he's on the go — like this winter, when he was headed to the Beijing Olympics — James is all-in on the mini Theragun and other portable devices.

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"Usually with a lot of our competitions, everything's very back-to-back, so we finish on a Saturday night, we leave Sunday, we start practice on a Monday again," he said. "And you don't always have the time to focus on maybe something that had happened in the event, whether you had a little crash or something like that. So having little Theraguns to work on the plane when you're traveling and things like that is hugely beneficial for someone like myself."

Every edge he can get matters — no matter how small. It's how he took home a silver medal on the halfpipe at the Beijing Olympics this winter, and how he secured the bronze in the same event four years earlier in Pyeongchang.

Scotty James (right) with gold medalist Shaun White (center) and silver medalist Ayumu Hirano at the 2018 Pyeonchang Olympics.REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

James is confident that he has "a lot more snowboarding, a lot more competition to do over the next six-to-seven years." But had he not made such a significant commitment to his preparation back when he was 19, James may not be in the conversation for Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo 2026 and for medals yet to come.

"I'm really happy that I did figure it out pretty young," James said. "Sometimes you get to 30 or something and it's not too late, but you might have missed the boat on a few areas that you could have had a bit more impact on when you were younger."

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