Australian snowboarding teen Ally Hickman has been taken for scans after suffering a sternum injury in a fall in the women’s slopestyle Olympic final.

The 16-year-old Sydney schoolgirl was in fourth spot after the first of three runs in the final at Livigno Snow Park on Wednesday (local time), scoring 67.70 for her performance navigating three rails and three jumps down the mountain course.

But the Olympic debutant fell during her second run, injuring her sternum, and was unable to improve on her score.

While Hickman was cleared to compete in her third run, she fell again at the last jump, further jarring her injury.

She eventually finished seventh.

“She has been taken to the Olympic Village polyclinic for precautionary imaging,” the Australian Olympic team said.

Hickman was the only Australian to make the top-12 final, with Beijing bronze medallist Tess Coady missing the cut.

Meanwhile, Australian freestyle skier Danielle Scott achieved a lifelong dream when she finally clinched an Olympic medal.

An emotional Scott described winning silver as the “best day of my life”.

She took Australia’s record Winter Olympics medal tally to another level — three gold, two silver and a bronze.

Last month, Scott told her family and friends to cancel plans to watch her compete at the Milan Olympics because she was feeling so low about her form.

That meant the aerials veteran’s loved ones, husband Clark aside, weren’t in Livigno to watch the four-time Olympian achieve a career best.

She’d previously been unable to translate her impressive World Cup and world championship form to the Olympics stage, with her best result being a ninth place.

“To finally have this around my neck, I mean, it’s taken four Olympics and it’s been an incredible ride of frustration, a lot of highs, a lot of lows, but today, I just put my heart out there,” the 35-year-old said.

“I left everything out there. I jumped the way I wanted to, so this just means everything.

“I thought I was prepared for these moments but the last two Olympics I walked away heartbroken and I just told myself I wasn’t prepared to walk away heartbroken again.”

After competing at two World Cup events in Canada in early January and placing 19th and 20th, Scott said she was in a “really difficult place” and decided to ban her biggest fans from the Games.

“I told all my family and friends that they couldn’t come to the Olympics, they’d booked their tickets and it was really heartbreaking to say that because I just was feeling the pressure and I just needed to focus on myself,” she said.

“I was just so frustrated and not jumping the way I needed to … so this is for them and I’m grateful they believed in me.”

Australia’s top medal hope, two-time world champion Laura Peel, had missed the event after rupturing her ACL in a pre-Games training fall.

But Scott stepped up in style at the Livigno Snow Park. She delivered the best performance of the day in the first final, scoring a career-high 117.19, better even than the eventual winning score of gold medallist Xu Mengtao.

The Games were the first time Scott had attempted a triple-twisting triple in competition in three years, but with five of the six Super finalists doing the trick she had no choice.

She couldn’t quite replicate her very best in the high-pressure medal round,  brushing her hands on her landing to score 102.17. Defending champion Xu nailed her effort for a score of 112.90.

Three Chinese skiers filled the top four positions alongside Scott, who has been long-time friends and rivals with Xu, also 35,

“I am frustrated that I didn’t keep my hands from picking up that loose change and maybe could have meant that I got the gold, but that’s OK – this means everything to me and I’m so proud,” she said.

Scott’s medal came 24 years to the day after Alisa Camplin became Australia’s first Winter Olympics female gold medallist, winning the event at the Salt Lake City Olympics. This time, Camplin was the team’s chef de mission, watching on in Italy and hugging Scott in celebration afterwards.

“It’s been 12 years of coming in with the Olympic dream and now finally she does the most beautiful jumps of her life so I couldn’t have been more happy for her,” Camplin said.

“That’s the beauty of sport, isn’t it? It just comes down to the moment and she’s worked really hard for this mentally and emotionally.

“That was a next level female aerial final, one of the greatest competitions of all time and for her to win silver was outstanding.”

Another Australian, Abbey Willcox, also made the top-12 first final before bowing out. Teammates Airleigh Frigo and rookie Sydney Stephens didn’t make the cut.

-AAP