Australian freestyle skier Russell Henshaw has claimed bronze in the World Cup ski slopestyle at New Zealand's Winter Games, effectively solidifying his spot at next year's Sochi Olympics.
Henshaw shrugged off niggling shin soreness to score 91 on his second of two runs at the slopestyle event at Cardrona on Sunday, falling short of first place by three points.
USA's Nicholas Goepper took out top spot with Great Britain's James Woods taking home the silver medal.
Henshaw's result is enough for him to buy his ticket to Russia for February's Winter Olympic Games.
"I'm done now, I don't have to do any more World Cups," he told AAP after the event on Sunday.
The 23-year-old sat in third for most of the event, after scoring a solid 87.20 on his first run.
"I'm pretty damn stoked," Henshaw said.
"I've done the tricks a million times before, so it was just the case of getting the speed and hoping that it worked."
Henshaw's run into the Sochi Olympics has been less that ideal after a fall at the X Games in Aspen left him with the difficult decision of whether to undergo surgery for a torn ACL.
He opted for what he calls the little more dodgy side and chose not to operate, instead spending countless hours strengthening the muscles around it.
It doesn't seem to be holding him back.
"It's working fine, it feels completely normal," he said.
"I haven't had any problems skiing, no problems jumping, it feels 100 per cent."
Sochi will host the first ever Olympic Games ski slopestyle event, after it was added to the repertoire for the 2014 Games.
Ski slopestyle involves freestyle skiers navigating an array of rails, features and jumps, with competitors usually relying on the best score of two runs, which are decided by a panel of judges.
It's addition to the Olympics was the major motivation behind Henshaw's decision to opt out of surgery, with a year not enough time to recover and prepare to compete at the highest level.
With six months to go until the Games, the 23-year-old says he's going to focus on training and fine tuning his tricks, something he didn't quite master at the Winter Games.
"A lot of people who were watching probably thought it looked good, but there were little things that I could tell, for myself, that I know I could have cleaned up a bit," he said.
The ski slopestyle final wrapped up the 10-day Winter Games event in New Zealand, with Henshaw posting the best result of any Australian competitors.
Australian snowboarder Scott James finished sixth in the snowboard halfpipe, with Holly Crawford and Nate Johnstone coming in seventh.
