Hugo's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Cross-Country Skiing
Events: Sprint Freestyle, 15km Classic
Olympic History: Beijing 2022
Highlights: Representing Australia at Beijing 2022
Coaches: Callum Watson, Erik Thorstensen
Year Born: 2003
State Born: Queensland
About Hugo
Hugo Sebastian Hinckfuss is an Australian cross‑country skier who made his Olympic debut while still a teenager and has since become a consistent World Cup racer for Australia. Born in 2003 in Queensland and raised in Sydney, he first tried cross‑country skiing when teachers encouraged his Year 5 class to form an Interschools team; he liked it immediately and kept going. A fluent Polish speaker, Hugo balances sport with study and has long said he wants to apply mathematics and physiology to high‑performance sport, using data to find “marginal gains” for athletes.
Hugo progressed quickly through domestic pathways. He won a New South Wales state title in 2015 and an Australian junior national title in 2016, then made his FIS debut at the Australia and New Zealand Cup in Perisher in 2018. In 2019 he won the U18 Birkebeiner 21 km and took silver in the Sprint and fourth in the distance event at the Australian U20 Championships.
His first major international campaign came at the Lausanne Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2020, followed by a formative European season in 2021 that included an OPA Junior Cup result of 17th in Goms and a World Cup start in Lenzerheide. Hugo credits guidance from coaches Callum Watson and Erik Thorstensen for helping him make the jump to senior racing.
At the Beijing Olympic Winter Games in 2022, Hugo was 18 and became the first Australian junior (Under‑20) cross‑country skier selected for the Games and, according to Snow Australia, the youngest Australian ever to represent the nation in cross‑country skiing at an Olympics. He finished 61st in the sprint freestyle and 81st in the 15 km classic, gaining invaluable experience amongst the world’s best.
That northern winter he returned to the junior ranks and delivered Australia’s most successful Junior World Championships campaign to date. At Lygna 2022 he placed 27th in the 30 km freestyle mass start and 30th in the 10 km classic, then at Whistler 2023 he qualified 10th in the classic sprint, a first for an Australian junior, before finishing 26th after the heats.
Hugo’s promise was recognised when he was selected as a Tier 3 recipient in the 2023 Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program, support he described as a vote of confidence in his long‑term goals. He also joined the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia athlete performance program from 2024.
Alongside national‑team duties, Hugo has continued his studies and racing in the United States. After commencing tertiary study in Australia, he moved to the University of Colorado in Boulder, qualifying for multiple NCAA Championships and earning academic honours while competing on the collegiate circuit. He lists Boulder as his base during the northern winter.
In February 2024 he set a World Cup personal best of 40th in the 10 km freestyle at Minneapolis, finishing 1:07.7 behind race winner Gus Schumacher in a historic event for the host nation (International Ski Federation). He backed that up across the 2024–25 season with solid mid‑field World Cup results, including 44th in the 10 km freestyle at both Les Rousses and Cogne, and teamed with Lars Young Vik for 22nd in the men’s team sprint in Cogne.
January 2025 brought another step forward: at the World Cup in Engadin, Switzerland he was Australia’s top‑placed male in the sprint free and helped the mixed relay to 17th.
Through these seasons Hugo has retained the same ethos he demonstrated as a schoolboy in Sydney, a love of the process of training and racing, and a curiosity for how science can enhance performance. With Olympic experience already banked and consistent World Cup finishes now part of his résumé, he continues to build towards the next peak in his career while contributing to an Australian cross‑country team that is recording its best collective results in decades.
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