FREESTYLE SKIING: Moguls athlete Jakara Anthony is chasing an Olympic dream and with less than a year to the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, the 18-year-old is stepping up at the right time.
At last weekend’s Tazawako Freestyle Ski World Cup in Japan, Anthony broke through for her first top-ten World Cup result.
“I finished up ninth which was amazing,” Anthony said.
“I wasn’t expecting to do that well so I was really happy with how it went.
“This season I’ve also made two other finals on the tour finishing 11th and 14th, so it’s really good to get my name out there and to be getting these good scores.
“It's nice to know I can compete with some of the best in the world,” she said.
Anthony says familiarisation is the reason for her recent run of good results.
“I think a lot of it has to do with feeling comfortable on tour. The World Cups have a very different atmosphere to any other competitions I’ve done and just having the experience of a few comps before was what I needed to build confidence in my runs.”
The Barwon Heads 2016 high school graduate has been selected to represent Australia at the Asian Winter Games in both the Moguls and Dual Moguls events.
She has deferred tertiary studies in Bio Medicine to pursue her skiing goals and has spent the season training at Winter Park in Colorado.
“I want to consistently make the top-ten at World Cups and I want to get to the Olympics,” she said.
“Potentially 2018 if I qualify, but if not I’m looking at 2022 in Beijing.”
Anthony arrived in Sapporo earlier in the week and has positive first impressions.
“I didn’t realise how big the event was and its very high profile, everything is very official and there’s a lot of athletes from different countries that I didn’t even know participated in winter sports and it’s really awesome to be a part of it.”
The 2017 Sapporo Asian Winter Games Moguls will begin on Friday.
Michelle Cook
