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Extreme Olympic dream comes true for Aussie skier

Photo: Red Bull
Photo: Red Bull


What’s life like as an extreme sportsperson?

"Every time I tell people what I do, I make an 'X' with my arms and every time I drop into a trick, I yell, 'Extreme!'" Freestyle skier Russ Henshaw jokes.

If only it was that simple.

They may have the same competitive streak as any other professional sportsperson, but extreme athletes are at a whole other level.

Courage, madness, whatever you call it, the extreme sportsperson has a stubborn knack for acknowledging their very human fears, and re-purposing that fear as motivation for (unsurprisingly) extreme outcomes.

X-Games silver medallist and Dew Tour winner, Henshaw, can’t name an individual jump where he’s been afraid. He says every jump is daunting, especially when they’re attempted for the first time.

"You get a little scared, but you just deal with it and overcome it," he said.

"If you let it get the best of you, you wouldn’t be doing any jumps. I know it’s either going to go well or go horrible, and that’s about all there is to it."

Henshaw has experienced both sides of the spectrum. While many breathtaking jumps are often completed successfully, for these elite daredevils injury is an unavoidable hazard of the job, and no-one knows this better than Henshaw.

"I’ve had a lot of injuries. Where do I start? I’ve torn the ligament off my left ankle, I’ve shattered my knee cap in my left knee into about thirty pieces, and did my right ACL twice," he said.

"I’ve done a bunch of stuff, hit my head multiple times, a lot of concussions."

Behind the nonchalance in which this terrifying list is delivered, there is a very real struggle Henshaw had to endure to get his career back on track after each injury setback.

A Red Bull ambassador, Henshaw credits Red Bull’s high performance network for bouncing back (or ‘giving him wings’) so quickly after his most recent setback – a knee reconstruction in February.

With his Olympic qualification on the line, his team helped him recover to an acceptable point so he could ski just one month after the operation. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t at his best. Remarkably Henshaw finished fourth in the X-Games and secured his start at the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Slopestyle category.

Now after returning from the Red Bull Performance Camp in Aspen, where the Jindabyne local has been learning and testing out new tricks, Henshaw says he’s ready than ever for Slopestyle’s Olympic debut in Sochi, Russia next year.

"I’ve been doing Slopestyle since I was about 12 or 13. It’s been around for a while, it’s just finally made it into the Olympics," he said.

For the uninitiated, the newest Winter Olympic sport, Slopestyle, features jumps, rails and half pipes, all in a row. Skiers negotiate the obstacles from top to bottom, showcasing their best tricks with the objective of making it look as smooth and effortless as possible, for higher scores from the judging panel.

"I’m working on the triple 1440 trick at the moment," Henshaw revealed.

"I’ve done a few of them over the last two years, but I’ve only ever done them on really big jumps.

"I’m trying to make them possible on smaller jumps, so when the Olympics roll around I can do it on a smaller jump."

Though the Winter Olympics is not usually Australia’s sporting forte, after a disappointing medal haul in the Summer Olympics, rest assured all eyes will be on guys like Henshaw to produce medals for the land down under.

Photo: Red Bull
Photo: Red Bull