Tess Coady is a snowboarder and Winter Olympian who was awarded a Scholarship within the 2019 Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program and was paired with Nick Green OAM as her Mentor.
Tess was born in Melbourne in 2000 and craves the adrenaline of the Slopestyle and Big Air disciplines of snowboarding, which see her launched high into the air while performing death-defying tricks.
Tess was the youngest Australian to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympic Team after consistent top 10 finishes in World Cup events and the world junior title in Slopestyle in 2017. She was named Rising Star at the 2017 Australian Ski and Snowboard Awards and was expected to challenge the world’s best after taking bronze in the Aspen World Cup just prior to the Olympics. Unfortunately, Tess sustained a serious knee injury while preparing for PyeongChang and had to sit out the event, plus many more competitions in the following months.
Hours of commitment to rehabilitation paid off, and Tess became the first Australian to win a gold medal in the Slopestyle discipline at a World Cup when she won the event in Seiser, Italy, in 2020. The result demonstrates the talent and potential which earned Tess her place on the Olympic team in 2018, and augurs well for her ambitions at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games and beyond.
Tess aims to play a role in helping female snowboarding to grow in Australia and to break down barriers and encourage more female riders, while also finding the time to cut fresh tracks in the backcountry.
“Being able to work with Nick Green through the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program was an awesome experience. It was great getting insight from Nick about key points throughout his career, especially dealing with injury.
“Integrity is the quality of being honest, trusting, dignified and having strong moral principles; integrity is about doing the right thing in a reliable way and living up to those values and beliefs. For me, integrity is something I hold key in my values as a person in my everyday life and a principle I aim to display in my sport, both on and off the snow. Integrity for me is closely tied with good sportsmanship and is a value that I hope I display when competing and when representing Australia, whether it’s been a great day or not.
As a sports person I understand that my actions can influence others, particularly younger, aspiring athletes and integrity is something that I hope people recognize in me as one of my primary qualities and I hope to use this quality to inspire the future of our sport”. – Tess on being selected as a 2019 Tier Scholarship Holder and what integrity means to her.
“It is a great privilege to be able to pass on some of my knowledge to Tess. Having teenage daughters of my own, I know that I will be able to listen to Tess and support and guide her growth as an athlete.” said mentor Nick Green, member of Australia’s legendary ‘Oarsome Foursome’.
Awards, Honours & Achievements
- 2017: Junior World Championships – Slopestyle and Big Air Dual Gold
- 2017: Mammoth Slopestyle World Cup – 6th
- 2017: Czech Republic World Cup – Slopestyle 6th
- 2018: PyeongChang Winter Olympics – Australian Olympic Team
- 2018: Slopestyle World Cup Aspen – 3rd
- 2020: Slopestyle World Cup Seiser Alm Italy – 1st
- 2022: Laax Open – Champion
- 2022: Beijing Winter Olympic Games
