Australian winter athletes had a stunning week, with six World Cup medals across snowboard cross, bobsleigh, aerials and moguls and mixed doubles curling pair Dean Hewitt and Tahli Gill making history as the first Australians to earn an Olympic curling qualifier.
Curlers Make Olympic History
Mixed doubles pair Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt made history as the first Australians to earn an Olympic quota in curling, winning seven matches from seven in the final Olympic Qualification Tournament in Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
The pair showed nerves of steel with several come-from-behind victories throughout the tournament, culminating with Gill nailing her final shot to secure a 6-5 win against Korea in the final match of the tournament.
“It’s amazing, we’ve been working so hard over the past few months and the past couple of years, and it’s all paid off,” Hewitt said post-match. “We’ve had so much support from home, we can’t thank them enough.”
Find out more on the tournament results here and what it means from Australian Curling President here.
Aerials 1-2 for Scott and Peel
Danielle Scott and Laura Peel completed a gold-silver podium double for Australia at the World Cup event in Ruka, Finland, the first double aerials podium since Peel and Olympic champion Lydia Lassila in 2017.
In a one jump competition, Scott scored a near perfect 102.93 points for her double full-full jump, a triple twisting double back somersault, to record the fifth World Cup victory of her career.
2021 World Champion Peel performed a full-tuck-full, double twisting triple back somersault, scoring 99.37 points to finish in second place, ahead of Mengtao Xu of China with a score of 98.28 points.
Double Mogul Bronze for Jakara Anthony in Sweden
Mogul skier Jakara Anthony took home two bronze medals at the World Cup event in Idre Fjall, Sweden, standing on the podium for both the singles event and dual moguls competition.
Adding to her World Cup silver from last week in Ruka, Anthony now tops the Moguls World Cup standings.
“It’s incredible to go back to back at the same event, it’s been a while since I have had the opportunity to do that” said the 23-year-old from Barwon Heads in Victoria.
“It was really tight duals all day long in the whole women’s field, you just had to get in there and go for it in that middle section, it was pretty tricky in there, so you just had to run it.”
Read more about the moguls results here >>>
Also in action for Australia in the duals was Britt Cox in 14th, Sophie Ash 19th, James Matheson 23rd, Taylah O’Neill 29th, Cooper Woods, 28th, Madii Himbury 34th and Brodie Summers 41st, while Cox also finished 12th in the singles, with Matt Graham the best placed male in the singles before suffering a training injury between qualification and finals.
Snowboard Silver for Belle Brockhoff
Belle Brockhoff won Snowboard Cross silver medal in Montafon, Austria with 18-year old teammate Josie Baff finishing a career best in ninth.
Brockhoff reached the big final after taking out victories in the quarter and semi final heats. In a closely contested final with several lead changes, Brockhoff was just edged at the finish line behind Charlotte Bankes of Great Britain, with Chloe Trespeuch of France in third.
“It’s really good to be back on the podium”, said a happy Brockhoff after collecting the 13th World Cup medal of her career. “I was a bit rusty at the opening World Cup in China, but it was good to get the cobwebs out and bring in some good momentum into this race.
Also in action for Australia was Jarryd Hughes (22nd), Mia Clift (26th), Cam Bolton (26th), Declan Dent (29th), Adam Dickson (33rd), Kobi Dent (47th) and Adam Lambert (57th).
Brockhoff also backed up from her silver medal run to compete with Jarryd Hughes in the mixed event, finishing just off the podium in fourth in the event that will make its Olympic debut in Beijing.
Monobob Silver and 2-Woman PB
Bree Walker won her third straight monobob medal of the season, finishing in second place at the IBSF World Series event in Winterberg, Germany.
With consistent finishes across the season, Walker is currently ranked fifth on the women’s monobob standings.
Backing up from her individual performance, Walker teamed up with brakewoman Kiara Reddingius to finish 7th in the two-woman event in a time of 1:54.57, just 0.8s behind eventual winners Nolte and Levi from Germany. In just their first World Cup race together, the 7th place finish equalled Australia's best result to date and capped off a terrific weekend for Walker and her Australian winter teammates.
Skelton Racers Take on Winterberg
Australian skeleton racer Jacqui Narracott continued her World Cup campaign in Winterberg, Germany.
Pushed through injury to even make the start line, Narracott managed to set a new Push PB on her first run, sitting in 13th, before finishing 17th overall after her second.
The Skeleton season moves on to Altenberg for the next racing round this week.
Sami Kennedy-Sim and Doug Crawford in action in Ski Cross
Val Thorens, France hosted a ski cross double header event, with weather making for some tricky conditions.
Doug Crawford finished 22nd in the first event, with 61st in the second, while Sami Kennedy-Sim finished 23rd on both days.
The pair head to Arosa, Switzerland for their next event early this week.
Cross Country World Cup Season Starts in Switzerland
Eight athletes lined up for the Davos Cross Country World Cup over the weekend, with four making their World Cup debuts in Bentley Walker-Broose, Zana Evans, Tuva Bygrave and John Walker.
Casey Walker was the best placed Aussie female in the Sprint qualification in 61st, followed by Jess Yeaton (67th) and Zana Evans (77th). Phillip Bellingham topped the placing for men in 82nd, less than a second in front of Lars Young Vik in 83rd.
Bellingham was also the best placed Aussie in the men’s 15km Freestyle Interval Start in 94th, closely followed by Young Vik (98th), Walker (99th) and Broose-Walker (101st).
Yeaton placed 51st in the Women’s 10km Freestyle Interval Start, with Wright placing 77th and World Cup debutant Bygrave in 81st.
Top Eight Finishes for Figure Skaters Kerry and Craine
Figure Skaters were in action in Zagreb, Croatia for the Golden Spin Challenger Series.
In the singles events, Brendan Kerry started strongly sitting in third after the short program with a score of 84.36, before a ninth in the long program saw him finish sixth overall.
Kailani Craine was the best placed Australian on the women’s side, finishing the short program in 10th with a score of 53.22, before improving to eighth overall with a seventh in the long program. Victoria Alcantara finished 22nd overall, after sitting in 16th following the short program.
In the Rhythm Dance event Australian pair Holly Harris and Jason Chan finished in seventh place overall, with India Nette and Eron Westwood in 11th.
Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopolous Moore were the best placed Australians in the pairs event, finishing in 10th ahead of Maria Chernyshova and Harley Windsor in 13th and Campbell Young and Lachlan Lewer in 17th.
Skiers and Snowboarders Hit Halfpipe in Copper Mountain
The Snowboard and Freeski Halfpipe season continued in Copper Mountain USA, with three Australians competing across the weekend.
Abi Harrigan finished 27th in the Women's Freeski Halfpipe event with a score of 40.75, with the event won by Chinese athlete Gu Ailing Eileen.
In the Snowboard Halfpipe, 16-year old Valentino Guseli finished in 31st place with a score of 34.33 with Ruka Hirano of Japan taking the win, while Emily Arthur also finished in 31st place in a competitive field won by Xuetong Cai of China.
Darcie Morton in World Cup Biathlon Action
Darcie Morton was Australia’s lone competitor at the Biathlon World Cup Event in Hochfilzen, Austria.
Competing in the 7.5km sprint event, Morton finished in 113th.