After finishing eighth in the final against a very experienced field, some may consider Guseli an 'overnight sensation', however, the snowboarder has been on the winter sporting radar for years, steadily shredding his way to the top since he was a toddler.

Hailing from Dalmeny on the NSW south coast, Guseli took up snowboarding when he was two years old, following in the footsteps of his parents.

His dad, Ric, who Valentino explained was, “pretty good” at snowboarding and could still “send the big jumps at home,” and his mum, Kristen, who also knew her way around a snowboard, noticed their son’s talent early on, so took him to the snow as often as they could.

When he was seven, Guseli began training under US Snowboarding Coach, Mike Lund in Vermont, USA, and at 11 years old, he became the youngest person ever to perform a double backflip.

As his talent grew, his training and competition schedule became more demanding and his international travel more frequent, which meant a lot of time away from his family.

To try and lessen his time away, Guseli’s Nonno, Guido, built a custom jump, to allow his grandson to train in his own backyard.

“I started travelling away pretty frequently, and my grandparents would miss me a lot,” Guseli said.

“So, we had this idea, that having a jump at home would mean I didn’t have to travel as much.

“I could train and hang out with my grandparents at the same time.”

The jump starts at a 45-degree angle, before rising to a 15-degree lip, with a soft airbag landing at the bottom and is a big talking point of the Delmeny area.

Already perfecting the double backflips, his at-home ramp meant he could chase triple and quadruple backflips, without having to leave his family behind.

In 2019, Guseli won the US Open Junior Jam in Vail, Colorado, improving on his second-place finish from the year prior. He scored a massive 96.99 points, over four points clear of the second-place getter.

He then won the World Rookie Tour Slopestyle and came second in the World Rookie Tour Halfpipe.

Due to minimum age requirements, Guseli had to wait until after his 15th birthday before he could make his world cup debut, which he did in January 2021 at Laax in Switzerland.

Here, the teenager earned himself a score of 95 in the qualifying round, the highest of the day and the best-ever result by an Australian winter athlete on debut.

He headed into the world cup final over  10 points clear of second-place qualifiers, Japan’s Yuto Totsuka and Switzerland’s David Habluetzel and 14 points ahead of Australian triple Olympian, World Champion and Guseli’s idol, Scotty James, in third place.

“A lot of snowboarders inspired me as a kid, Scotty James especially, he has just been killing it,” Guseli said of his childhood hero.

“Being able to compete alongside people like him is so awesome because I grew up watching and wanting to be just like him one day."

After finishing the competition in eighth place overall, Guseli said that making finals at all was already more than he had hoped for.
“It was my first world cup, so the only real goal I set for myself, was to make finals,” the year 11 student said.

“Before the comp, I was pretty nervous, I wasn't sure if I had the ability to even make finals, so in the semi-finals, I was really determined to just put down as good a run as I could.

“When I qualified in first place for the finals, I couldn't believe it. I definitely wasn't expecting it, so I was just really happy.”

A coach for many years, Lund says that what stands out about Valentino is his perseverance and ability to harness his fear.

“Val has a certain tenacity in training that you don't often see with people. He's looking for absolute perfection from himself all the time,” Lund explained.

“Sometimes I have to convince him that less than perfect is okay at times.

“His ability to set aside fear or use fear to his advantage also sets him apart,” he continued.

“Everybody has fear, it's healthy, but Val is better than anybody I've worked with at being able to set that aside, and that has really helped us to focus on making sure that the big tricks end up finishing in a positive way, not a negative way that was impacted by fear.”

Lund explained that fear is especially healthy in winter sports and is why the camaraderie between teammates is so strong.

“Everybody knows what the other is going through and the risk is pretty high in these very high-impact sports,” he said. 

“A small mistake could be a season or career-ender and I think everybody in the sport is well aware of the risks involved, so when they see something done really well, they cheer and congratulate you, and if they see a crash, well, they've all been there. 

Guseli says any fear he has, is outweighed by the feeling he gets when he’s in the air.

“I just love it, when I do tricks, I feel like I’m flying,” he explained.

“The feeling of the g-force, it’s like time slows down, I feel weightless… it’s pretty sick.”

Guseli says as his snowboarding repertoire continues to grow, he wants to become known for his innovation and creativity and he is on the right track.

In March of 2021, Guseli broke an 11-year-old big air world record, which was previously held by snowboarding legend, Shaun White.

The now 16-year-old flew 7.3 metres in the air.

“I just want to do innovative stuff, whether it’s adding a bit of individual style or flair to a trick that's been done, or it's a totally new trick, I just want to be innovative with my snowboarding and inspire people.”

Competing at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games is undoubtedly on Guseli’s bucket list and has been since he was nine.
“The first Olympics I ever watched was Sochi 2014,” he said.

“I actually watched it with my coach in Vermont when I was nine, and remember thinking how cool it was, and how proud I would be to represent my country.

“To be among all the other athletes, competing for Australia would be really special and it’s something I hope to achieve.”

Liana Buratti