Scotty James, Valentino Guseli aim to soar in snowboard halfpipe final at Beijing Winter Olympics

At just 16 years old, Valentino Guseli is living out most people's dreams.

On Wednesday, he made his Olympic debut in the snowboard halfpipe.

Guseli comfortably made the final, qualifying fifth — just half a point behind US legend Shaun White no less – meaning Australia will have two representatives in Friday's hotly anticipated final.

Getting prodigious amounts of air and fearlessly landing a video game-like array of flips and tricks, Guseli is flying in more ways than one.

The youngster of the Australian Olympic team said he feels like he's flying when he unleashes one of his trademark, high amplitude jumps off the side of the halfpipe, his form is sky high too.

What makes Guseli's performance even more impressive is that he made a mistake in his first run that left him well down the field, heaping the pressure on his second run.

Not that you'd have known it from Guseli's demeanour.

«That was the run that I was trying to land on the first one,» Guseli said.

«I just made a little mistake that I've never made on that trick, ever.

»In practice, I was really consistently landing that run, so I knew that in two tries, if I messed up the first one, I would be able to do the second one, if we're thinking logically.

«I just tried to stay as calm as I could, stepped away from the half-pipe, pushed the comp away for a second and just reset.

»When I went back up to the top, I was ready to stomp my next run and I'm very happy that I did.

«As a competitive snowboarder, I've been in that position a lot.

»It happens, we make mistakes.

"[It's] just understanding that, that was then and all you can do is change the moment that you're in at the time.

«I just wanted to seize the second opportunity that I had.»

If that sounds to you like a veteran of 16