Russ Henshaw (AUS)
At the age of just 18, Australian snow skier Russell Henshaw (born August 6, 1990), has been labeled the next big name in freeskiing and is already well on his way to capturing the world’s attention with his amazing skill and unique style of skiing.
Originally an alpine skier, with both Australian National and NSW state titles, Russell found his true calling when he switched to freeskiing in 2002. Through this new school discipline, Russell competed in several competitions, dominating the men’s slopestyle, big air; half pipe and rail jam categories. The springboard that launched Henshaw’s skiing career was when he competed internationally for the first time in 2006. At only 16 years of age, Henshaw won several significant first place results.
Russ, as he is better known on the slopes, has the ability to truly dominate on an international level with many loyal sponsors already by his side, including Red Bull, who signed him up in December 2007.“Red Bull has always held the most innovative and gnarly competitions in all aspects of sports. They are always pushing the envelope and coming up with new, exciting and crazier ideas for competitions,” Henshaw said.
Although Russ has achieved so much in such a short period of time, the journey is just beginning for this 18 year-old athlete. Adding to his extraordinary list of sporting achievements is his recent first place triumph at the European Open Slopestyle and second place win at the US Free-skiing Open event during the 2008 Northern Hemisphere earlier this year – which Russ describes is the highlight of his career so far.
So what’s the secret to Russ’ success? ”Live life to the fullest and no matter what, HAVE FUN,” he said.
With a handful of impressive local and international free skiing titles already behind him, Henshaw is closer to reaching his goal of becoming World. No.1! “My long term goal is to be one of the best free skiers in the world, and in the mean time I would like to continue to work on my sport and have as much fun as possible,” Henshaw concluded.
2010
1st London Freeze Big Air
1st Barcelona Snow Show Big Air
2nd Austrian Freeski open Slopestyle / Big Air
4th Winter X-games 14 Big Air
5th Winter X-games 14 Slopestyle
2009
1st JOI Big Air
1st NewschoolPickNick Big Air
1st Redbull Playstreets Slopestyle
2nd Sweet Rumble Big Air
9th Winter X-games Slopestyle
Voted ”best performance” Jon Olsson Super sessions
2008
1st European Freeski Open Slopestyle
1st New Zealand Freeski Open Slopestyle
2nd US Freeskiing open Slopestyle
2nd Redbull Playstreets Slopestyle
2nd Austrian Freeski Open Slopestyle
4th US Freeskiing open Big Air
2007
1st Verbier Ride Big Air
1st Verbier Ride Rail jam
1st Mystic Experience Big Air
1st New Zealand open rail jam
2nd Redbull Playstreets Slopestyle