Valentino Guseli hasn't given up on his monumental goal to become the first male snowboarder to compete in three events at an Olympics, despite rupturing his ACL.
The teenage superstar is recovering from knee surgery at his home at Dalmeny on the NSW far south coast after he fell during qualifying for a big air World Cup event in China earlier this month.
Given he holds the world record for the highest air off a jump - a staggering 11.53 metres - it was a fairly innocuous crash with a calamitous outcome.
"When it happened I was hoping it was just a dislocation with no ligament damage, but unfortunately that wasn't the case," Guseli told AAP.
"It's a bit of a silly one, like having a nothing crash and then the season being over.
"I'm already walking and moving my knee in ways that I didn't think I would at this point so it's gone super well."
The 19-year-old isn't expected to be back on snow until the Australian winter, missing the remainder of the northern hemisphere World Cup season.
In a two-year qualification period that leaves him limited time and opportunities to qualify in three disciplines - halfpipe, big air and slopestyle - for the 2026 Olympics in Milan-Cortina.
As a 16-year-old, Guseli finished an incredible sixth in the halfpipe at the 2022 Games in China but wants to make history as a triple threat in the men's events.
Halfpipe gold medallist Torah Bright became the first athlete to achieve the feat, defending her Olympic title as well as competing in the slopestyle and snowboard cross at the 2014 Games in Sochi.
Guseli has the talent to realise his ambitions, in 2023 becoming the first man to win World Cup medals in all three disciplines in a single season, with 10 career podiums.
"I definitely still have an opening to be able to qualify for all three but it's definitely not going to be as easy as it would have been, and it wouldn't have been easy in general," Guseli said.
"But I absolutely do want to qualify for all three for the Olympics.
"Torah did it but no snowboarder has ever gone for slopestyle, big air and half pipe in the same Olympics or even different Olympics.
"I've got a lot of work to do ... but I know that it's also a good opportunity to just have a big rest from snowboarding and be able to come back with the most lit fire that I've ever had."
A keen surfer, Guseli is trying to stay patient while spending his first summer at the beach since he was a kid and working with his Austrian physiotherapist who has flown to Australia to treat him.
He has ruled out trying to return for the world championships in St Moritz, Switzerland, in March, saying the Olympics remains the priority.
"The Olympics is the important thing so I wouldn't be doing world champs and risking it with the Olympics coming up," he said.
"If the world champs was the Olympics, yeah, that may be a different story it would be time to push it.
"It's cool ... it's kind of the most convenient time, in a way, that it could happen."
