Trouble had paid its deposit early in Séamus O’Connor’s run and now, as the last and biggest jump loomed in front of him, it came back with the balance.
A wobble off an earlier one had caused him to drop a hand to the snow for a moment, robbing him of speed at the very time he ought to have been building it up. It meant the momentum he needed just wasn’t there come the final jump so his big finish ended up as a cloud of white and a slither down the remainder on his backside.
His second run 25 minutes later was better but climaxed in similar fashion and it meant the first day’s competition in slopestyle snowboarding ended with 16-year-old O’Connor coming 13th in his heat.
Only the top four in each heat qualified for the final, meaning he and 21 other riders must compete for the final four places in the repechage tomorrow morning.
It was a rough introduction to Olympic life for O’Connor, a tall, straight-backed kid from San Diego who qualifies for Ireland through grandparents from Drogheda and Dublin.
Slopestyle is essentially Skater Brats Do Christmas, wherein each rider goes down a course built to look like a deserted skateboard park covered in snow.
Judges award points for tricks pulled over railings and ramps and everyone is marked out of 100. You get two runs at it and your best score counts – the lowest score to make the final out of O'Connor's heat was 91.25. Because he wiped out both times he attempted to finish with a triple cork – that's corkscrew for you boring old Irish Times readers (or three spins in the air, for everyone born before Italia '90) – his best offering only drew a 40.00.
“It was enjoyable,” he said afterwards. “In amongst the fear, there was definitely enjoyment. That was a brand new trick for me so I was a little nervous but I felt confident in myself that I would be able to get it turned around. And I did – I just wasn’t able to put it to my feet.
"It's been a little bit overwhelming. I'm the youngest in the slopestyle field so to be able to compete against these amazing riders I kind of have to come out with something I haven't tried before. That was the very first time I tried it. You've got to give it your all – it's the Olympics.
'I decided to go for it'
"I've been thinking about doing it for a while and the jump here is really big so it gives you a lot of airtime. My coach and I talked about it last night and this morning I was feeling good so I decided to go for it."
The triple cork is the bicycle kick of the snowboarding world. When it comes off, it’s a thing of beauty and a joy forever. When it doesn’t, you’re left with a sore arse and a bruised ego.
For him to choose the biggest day of his life to try it for the first time says only good things about his future.
He’s been trying out new tricks since the age of four. In such a young and dangerous sport, you’re only as good as your next innovation. O’Connor has broken both bones in his leg in the past, dislocated his jaw, severed his quad.
His idol growing up was Kevin Pearce, a boundary-pushing boarder who looked set at one point to reach Shaun White levels of fame in the sport.
Pearce was 22 when he crashed trying a new trick in late 2009 and suffered a traumatic brain injury. With one blow to the head just above his eye-socket, his snowboarding career ended and he spent the next six months in hospital.
O’Connor was on the mountain when it happened and has since become friends with Pearce having met him through Nike. The dangers of the sport are no mystery to him, nor to any of them. Which makes his all-out attempt at a triple on his first day of Olympic competition all the more admirable.
"Probably the scariest moment in snowboarding is when you're trying a new trick that you've never done before. You're nervous but you're confident. You're nervous because you've never done it and you don't know how it's going to go. But you're also confident because you've planned for it and you wouldn't be trying it if you didn't think you could do it.
Extreme rush
"You just let your mind go as much as you can and you let your body take over and just let it happen. It's an extreme rush when you hit it. You're shaking head to toe, the adrenaline is quite intense. Your body is shaking and your hands are twitching.
“It’s not uncommon at all to get injured in snowboarding. It’s kind of always in the backs of our minds that some of the tricks we do can go wrong and that when they do go wrong, it can end quite badly.
“So we try to push that out and we try to train and progress as naturally as we can. We train into airbags and foam pits when we’re trying new tricks but ultimately it’s about doing it on the slope. This is the sport we love and we’re drawn to it for that.”
It didn’t come off for O’Connor yesterday but his Sochi experience has plenty left in it yet. He’ll go again tomorrow morning and try to nail his triple and next Tuesday he’ll suit up for the half-pipe.
A final is unlikely in either case but that’s hardly the point. Getting back on your feet, wiping the snow off your goggles, heading back up the mountain to try it again. That’s the point.
And anyway, he’s too young to feel the pain for long.
He’s still young enough to have to spend part of every day going to school online. Or at least he’s supposed to – lately his inbox has been dinging with emails from his only teacher asking about the whereabouts of some assignments due. They’ll have to wait another week at least.
“I’m happy overall. If this was the end of it, I’d be disappointed but we get another slopestyle chance on Saturday. I’m not too down on it. I feel confident that with some more work, I can hit that triple.
“I’ll go and get some physio now on my hip because I kind of hurt it on that first fall and then just keep at it and try to do better. Once I have another shot at it, I’m happy.”
