Team GB's freestyle skier James Woods eyes glory at Winter Olympics

The last of the free spirits may yet be the first of the British athletes to make a meaningful dent on these Winter Olympics.

If there’s a misleading edge to Team GB’s freestyle skier James Woods, it concerns the contradiction between his carefree image and his results.

Woods has gone fifth and fourth in the slopestyle at the past two Winter Olympics, won the world title in that same event in 2019, and has been an X Games champion in Big Air.

He contests both disciplines here, with Big Air under way on Monday, and there is a ripple of optimism that Woods could be a contender in China at the relatively old age of 30. ‘The day I stop thinking I can win is the day I stop and respectfully bow out,’ he told The Mail on Sunday.

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‘I see this sport as more of a lifestyle, an art. I don’t really see myself as an athlete, I’m just doing this rad thing I like doing.

‘I ski in the winter and I surf in the summer but don’t think I don’t want to win. I want to win everything I compete in.

‘I’m feeling good here. The course looks rad and I just want to compete on it. We do crazy stuff in this thing and I have some new tricks in me. Let’s see how it goes.’