Winter Olympics: James Woods & the 'internal battle' when counter culture meets elite sport

In late September, in the northern Italian Alpine town of Bormio, Britain's most decorated free skier James Woods is detailing a list of everything he owns. It's very short.

Fresh off a plane from Nicaragua, where he's spent the summer surfing and spear fishing, Woods is a showman and a natural talker.

Fuelled by two giant gelatos we're well over the two-hour mark into an interview for the BBC TV documentary Free Spirits. He's been subject, director and interviewer and is showing no sign of slowing down. Until we get onto the subject of his worldly possessions, that is.

«What have I got?» ponders Woods. «A motorbike in New Zealand. Some surfboards and skis scattered around everywhere. Danny, one of my really good mates, he's got my car.»

Bags?

«I've got my ski bag, my backpack and my wheelie bag...»

Now aged 30, it's not much more than the teenage Woods had with him when he took to the Alps after quitting school and leaving home aged 15 to concentrate on his passion for freestyle skiing. It was about sport, but also about lifestyle. He doesn't have any regrets.

In 2019, he became the first British man to win World Championship gold on snow with victory in his favoured discipline of slopestyle — in which athletes ski down a course while performing tricks over rails and jumps.

Now he is one of the oldest on start lists at international events and is gearing up for his third Olympics. His sport has dramatically changed since those early days but that child-like excitement is still written all over his face. And next week in Beijing provides another chance to prove the doubters wrong.

Freestyle skiing might now be part of the mainstream and the Winter Olympics, but it is still, like Woods, a rebel at heart.

Woods grew up in