Olympic snowboarding debutant Tess Coady slays her way into slopestyle finals

Olympic debutant and youngster Tess Coady is breathing easy after succeeding the slopestyle qualifiers and progressing into the finals on Saturday.

The Aussie snowboarder from Victoria finished eighth in a field of 30 on Saturday, with the top 12 advancing through to Sunday’s finals and medal round.

Watch Tess Coady shred on a snowboard in the video above

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But the 21-year-old was thrilled just to be out on the Zhangjiakou course after being robbed of an Olympic debut four years ago in PyeongChang, when she tore her left ACL in a practice run, leaving her unable to compete.

Coady scored 55.98 in her first run resulting in her seventh position. When the competition began heating up, she nailed her second run to earn a score of 71.13, securing her passage into day two.

New Zealand’s Zoe Sadowsky Synnott, who is considered one of women’s most progressive snowboarders, blew away the field with her second outing, wowing the judges for a score of 86.75.

That’s more than five points clear of Japan’s Kokomo Murase, who is also making her Olympic debut.

Two-time gold medallist American Jamie Anderson had to rely on her first run to qualify in fifth after a disappointing second showing.

After winning bronze at last year’s world championships and topping the podium last month at the World Cup round in Switzerland, Coady is a genuine Beijing medal contender.

The young snowboarder was relieved to have made it to the start gate this time around.

“It’s nice to get some redemption at this event so I’m pretty stoked,” Coady said.

She revealed she hurt her ankle with a fall off a jump in practice on Friday, so was happy to lay down two good runs.

“I had a