For as long as I can remember, halfpipe has been my favorite Olympic sport. Seeing the snowboarders specifically fly into the air has left me awestruck year after year. Plus, growing up watching Shaun White and Chloe Kim ascend their respective ranks was inspiring. However, now, as the Winter Olympics air on the 2026 TV schedule, there’s a different snowboarder leading the pack that you need to pay attention to. And to make matters better, there’s a great documentary about him that you can stream with a Netflix subscription.
Now, if you are watching the Olympics from the United States with a Peacock subscription, odds are, your focus is on the USA. Trust me, I have the tunnel vision. However, in the case of the halfpipe this year, the frontrunner is an Australian named Scotty James.
On February 11, the men’s snowboard halfpipe qualifier ended with James in first place. And overall, he’s one of the clear favorites to take home the gold medal. He’s one of the most technical riders at the games in this event. Plus, he’s won gold at eight X-Games, he’s a four-time world champion, and he’s won bronze and silver medals in this event at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics, respectively. To be blunt, it’s his time to win.
That became abundantly clear, too, when I watched his documentary, Scotty James: Pipe Dreams.
Much like Shaun White’s docuseries, The Last Run, which you can stream with an HBO Max subscription, Pipe Dreams gives us a look at James’ entire career up to this point.
From his early days of snowboarding in Australia to his first Olympics in 2010 (he was 15 at the time), the documentary features lots of candid interviews with James and his family about his come-up. I was specifically moved by how raw he was when it came to talking about his turbulent relationship with the sport.
It wasn’t always easy, and it wasn’t until later in his career that he fully embraced his talent and added the training and mentality needed to win. The documentary tackles all of this beautifully, and it provides a very clear picture of what motivates James, why he’s so driven to win, and why he deserves gold this time around.
Adding to all that, his competitors (as in the guys who beat him at the last two Olympics), Shaun White and Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, also speak in the documentary. So, you get a full picture of where everyone was during these iconic halfpipe moments and how they were all impacted by the results.
As someone who has viewed this competition through the US competitors, and specifically Shaun White, I never really thought about the other guys who could take it. This documentary proves that James has been working hard for the title, and he’s been one of the best of the best for a long time. Now, it’s his time to take the gold.
To see if he does that, you can stream the Olympics on Peacock. The Men’s Halfpipe Final starts at 1:30 p.m. ET, and by the time it’s over, we’ll know if Scotty James has completed his quest for that last medal color. In the meantime, make sure to stream Scotty James: Pipe Dreams over on Netflix to get the full story about one of the toughest competitors in the halfpipe competition.
