Jarryd Hughes

Fast Facts

Sport: Snowboard
Event: Men's Snowboard Cross
Olympic History: Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, Beijing 2022, Milano Cortina 2026
Highlights: Silver at PyeongChang 2018, 2021 World Mixed Teams Champion, 2016 X Games Champion
Year Born: 1995

About Jarryd

Jarryd Hughes has fought his way back from a broken foot in April 2025 to be back on the snowboard cross start line at his fourth Olympic Games. The Olympic silver medallist from PyeongChang 2018, is also a two-time World Cup winner and Team World Champion from 2021.  

Born in Sydney, Jarryd learned to love speed and race craft early through Interschools competition and quickly rose through the ranks. At 17, he debuted on the World Cup tour at Stoneham, Canada, placing seventh, and the same northern winter he captured silver at the Junior World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain.

A month after his 2013 World Championships debut in Stoneham, where he placed 11th, Jarryd underwent the first of several knee surgeries before returning for the 2013–14 season. His comeback was emphatic: in December 2013 he claimed a maiden World Cup victory at Lake Louise, Canada. 

Sochi 2014 served as a hard‑earned education. Ranked No.2 on the International Ski Federation standings heading in, Jarryd was knocked off balance in a racing incident in the quarter‑finals and finished 17th overall. The disappointment sharpened his resolve. Two years later he won men’s snowboard cross at the Winter X Games in Aspen, becoming the first Australian to win a Winter X Games gold medal.

Momentum built through the Olympic season. In December 2017 Hughes won a second career World Cup gold in Montafon, Austria. Two months later at PyeongChang he delivered one of Australia’s great Winter Olympic performances, starting brilliantly in the six‑man final and holding his nerve to claim silver behind France’s Pierre Vaultier, Australia’s first Olympic medal in snowboard cross. He was then selected as Australia’s Flag Bearer for the Closing Ceremony, an honour that capped a superb campaign. 

Jarryd continued to mix resilience with results. Across 2019–20 he stayed competitive on tour, then made history again at the 2021 World Championships in Idre Fjäll, Sweden, teaming with Belle Brockhoff to win the inaugural mixed team snowboard cross world title, Australia’s first in the event. He and Brockhoff were also a close fourth at the Montafon World Cup mixed team event later that year.

The lead‑in to Beijing 2022 was rugged. After a training fall at Thredbo during the 2021 Australian winter, he required ankle surgery but still made it to the start line in China. Drawn in a stacked round of 1/8 finals, he was eliminated and classified 29th, far from his ambitions but testament to his willingness to compete through adversity. 

Jarryd took the 2022–23 season off from racing, remaining in Australia to train and rebuild for the next cycle. The work paid off. Returning to the World Cup in 2023–24, he produced his first podium in more than six years with a bronze under lights in Cortina d’Ampezzo, his fourth career World Cup podium, behind Canada’s Eliot Grondin and American Jake Vedder. 

He remained on tour into 2024–25, racing World Cups and contributing to the depth of a seasoned Australian snowboard cross squad that also features long‑time teammates  Cameron Bolton, Adam Lambert and world champion Brockhoff. Jarryd’s best performance came at the World Cup event in Cortina d'Amprezzo, Italy, where he finished 10th in tenth place. And he was 18th at the World Championships in St Moritz. 

At the final World Cup stop in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, he advanced to the quarterfinals before a crash resulted in a fractured navicular bone in his foot, ending his race and leaving him 14th overall. Since then, he has undergone multiple surgeries and committed to an intensive rehabilitation program.  

Jarryd fought his way back from injury, determined to qualify for his fourth Olympic Winter Games. He was back on snow competing on 16 January 2026, for the two back-to-back World Cups in Dongbeiya, China. In the first World Cup qualified 26th from a field of 55 and finished 23rd overall. The next day qualified 36th and just missed the 1/8 finals, with teammate Adam Lambert going on to win the gold and Cam Bolton was 16th.  

Whatever the stop on tour, Jarryd’s approach is familiar: a clean start, smart lines and the confidence that sustained him through multiple surgeries and the highs and lows of four Olympic campaigns. He will be using every day before he competes at Milano Cortina to keep building back, while drawing on his wealth of experience, resilience and skills.  

Off the snow, Jarryd has balanced elite sport with study in Commerce at the University of Sydney, and away from training he keeps active across a range of sports, part of the competitive energy he has brought to snowboard cross since his teenage years.