{"id":243738,"date":"2026-01-17T21:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T21:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/243738\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T21:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T21:59:07","slug":"scotty-james-captures-record-extending-fifth-laax-open-snowboard-halfpipe-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/243738\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotty James captures record-extending fifth Laax Open snowboard halfpipe victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Four-time\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/olympics.com\/en\/sports\/snowboard\/\" node=\"[object Object]\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">snowboard<\/a>\u00a0world champion\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/olympics.com\/en\/athletes\/scotty-james\" node=\"[object Object]\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scotty James<\/a>\u00a0claimed a record-extending fifth halfpipe victory at the\u00a0Laax Open\u00a0in Switzerland on Saturday (17 January).<\/p>\n<p>The Australian icon already boasted the record for the most Halfpipe World Cup victories by a snowboarder at the same event, with his fourth from a year ago at the same venue.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Competing in only his second World Cup of the season, James was looking for a statement performance as the days tick down to Milano Cortina 2026, where he is\u00a0aming to finally get his hands on Olympic gold*. The 31-year-old has come painstakingly close to the top step on the podium after winning silver in Beijing 2022 after bronze in\u00a0PyeongChang 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>James spearheaded a star-studded 12-man field in the Swiss ski resort after topping the semi-finals with a stunning second-run score of 95.75.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The last to drop into the pipe, James had to beat a score of 80.25 by compatriot Valentino Guseli to claim the top spot after the first run. He did just that with an impressive set of tricks, receiving a relatively modest score of 84 from the judges to take the lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The competition turned into a battle of the Antipodeans, with James, Guseli, and New Zealand\u2019s Campbell Melville Ives taking turns at the top of the standings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Melville Ives produced a spectacular second run, briefly relegating James into second place with a score of 91.00.<\/p>\n<p>But James would not be denied as he threw down one of the best runs of his career, unleashing a triple cork 1414 for his penultimate trick. James came painstakingly close to a perfect score, with the judges giving him a 98.75.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Melville Ives finished second with Guseli taking third for an Australia-New Zealand-Australia podium.<\/p>\n<p>*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes&#8217; participation at the Milano Cortina Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Milano Cortina 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four-time\u00a0snowboard\u00a0world champion\u00a0Scotty James\u00a0claimed a record-extending fifth halfpipe victory at the\u00a0Laax Open\u00a0in Switzerland on Saturday (17 January). The Australian&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-243738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}