Winning is not the priority for Sheffield's golden boy James Woods

Sheffield ski slopestyle star James Woods has shrugged off expectations of success at next year's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang despite increasing hype around the 25-year-old in the wake of last week's X Games gold.
OLYMPIC HOPE: Sheffields James Woods in action for Team GB at the Winter Olympics three years ago. Picture: PAOLYMPIC HOPE: Sheffields James Woods in action for Team GB at the Winter Olympics three years ago. Picture: PA
OLYMPIC HOPE: Sheffields James Woods in action for Team GB at the Winter Olympics three years ago. Picture: PA

Woods has defiantly pursued the mantra that winning is far from everything and insisted he was not even bothered about watching the scoreboard as his results in the prestigious Colorado event came in.

Woods said: “I don’t have any results goals – that sort of thing doesn’t mean anything to me. It means more to get a letter from a kid who is inspired by what I do.

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“At the X Games I wasn’t even looking at the scores – I was just so happy to have put down the runs that I did. That was the thrill, not whether it meant I won or not.

“If I hadn’t won it would have been one of my six best friends. Everybody wants me to say I’m going for Olympic gold these days and that I’ll stop at nothing but I’m just going to do my best and get a life.”

Since his sport’s elevation to the Olympic programme in 2014, the reality for Woods and his freestyle team-mates has been a world of performance analysis and funding targets he would clearly rather leave well alone.

But with one year to go to Pyeongchang the success is obvious, with freestyle team-mates Katie Ormerod, Billy Morgan and Jamie Nicholls having all claimed World Cup podiums in events this season.

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Woods, who will be one of the favourites next year in South Korea, admitted the Olympics have brought many good things to his sport, not least the profile required to attract future generations – even if they are a little bit old hat.

He added: “The Olympics are wonderful, and they’ve obviously spurred on interest in the new sports and to have so many more eyes on everything that we do is great. But nothing has really changed – the structures within the sport are different, but not the people. For us, it’s a wicked bonus and the chance to get on a different TV channel.”

Woods, who became Britain’s first snowsport World Cup winner in eight years with victory in Ushuaia, Argentina in 2012, is at the forefront of a stunning run of success for the British team which is helping to change its perception across the world.

For Woods, simply competing in Colorado at the strictly invitation-only X Games was vindication enough of the enormous strides being made, having grown up convinced that British athletes would never get the chance at such a prestigious event.

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“Even when I was back on the dry slope in Sheffield, my dream was to go to the X Games and it was hard at first, because I was constantly being told that no-one wants to see a British kid skiing.

“For year after year there were events in which I wasn’t allowed to compete. But I just decided to go for it and it’s funny, once you get your foot in the door you’re suddenly the one with the uniqueness that they want.

“What we do is ludicrous – we have 40 seconds in ice and wind to be as good as we possibly can be. That is my only goal – and if I can make a success of it then I will be the happiest guy alive.”

An unprecedented period of success this season – with six different winter athletes claiming World Cup podiums – has raised expectations ahead of Pyeongchang 2018, according to chef de mission Mike Hay.

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He believes the prospective British team of around 60 athletes will be in a good position to eclipse the record-equalling four medal haul from Sochi 2014.

“Sochi was a bit of a game-changer for us and but for a few disqualifications and a couple of near misses we could have done quite a lot better than we did.

“We have always been sat around 18th or 19th in the medals table at the Winter Olympics and we would like to move up to the next bracket of smaller alpine countries. To get in the top 15 would be great.”

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