Josie Baff

Fast Facts

Sport: Snowboard
Event: Women's Snowboard Cross, Mixed Team Snowboard Cross
Olympic History: Beijing 2022, Milano Cortina 2026
Highlights: Gold at 2020 Youth Olympics
Coach: Harald Benselin
Year Born: 2003

About Josie

Snowboard cross racer Josie Baff made her Olympic Winter Games debut at Beijing 2022 aged 19. Two years earlier, she was the Youth Olympic Champion and got a small taste of what to expect at the biggest event of them all. In Beijing, she performed extremely well at her first Games, placing 18th in the snowboard cross and 13th in the mixed team event with Adam Lambert. 

Since Beijing and leading up to Milano Cortina 2026 she has produced amazing results. She is a 2023 World Championship silver medallist, has two World Cup individual wins and a team win. To achieve 16 World Cup podiums so young is remarkable. She goes into the Milano Cortina Games ranked second in the world and has been ranked in the top four for the past four years.  

Born in Cooma and raised in nearby Jindabyne, Josie grew up in a mountain family that treated winter as a way of life. She first skied at two and strapped into a snowboard at five, following her parents between seasons in the Snowy Mountains, St Moritz and Mammoth as they taught on snow. Those early years bred a love of racing and a comfort with variable conditions that later became a hallmark of her riding.  

Through school Josie split time between alpine skiing and snowboard cross, winning interschool titles in both before choosing the head‑to‑head racing of snowboard cross. A New South Wales Institute of Sport scholarship in 2018 helped firm that decision, and by 2019 she was winning the Canadian Junior Nationals and making senior‑level podiums on the Australia–New Zealand Cup and Nor‑Am circuits.

Her international breakthrough came at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games, where she became Australia’s first Winter Youth Olympic champion by winning women’s snowboard cross. The same year she joined the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program, paired with swimming great Susie O’Neill. 

Josie made her World Cup debut in 2021 at Bakuriani, placing 15th, and a year later reached her first Olympic Winter Games at Beijing 2022, finishing 18th in the individual event and 13th in the inaugural mixed team event with Adam Lambert. 

The 2022–23 season established her among the world’s elite. She claimed a maiden World Cup victory at Les Deux Alpes in December and closed the campaign third overall. At the 2023 World Championships in Bakuriani she won silver in the individual event, Australia’s best women’s snowboard cross result at that level, and added junior world silver plus team gold later that season.

Consistency defined 2023–24. Josie finished fourth on the World Cup standings with five podiums, second at Sierra Nevada, and third at Cervinia, Mont‑Sainte‑Anne and both races in Montafon, while continuing to anchor Australia’s rise in the discipline.  

She carried that form into 2024–25, opening with silver in Cervinia in December, then adding silver at Beidahu, China, in February. In Erzurum, Türkiye, she took individual bronze before teaming with Cam Bolton for Australia’s first World Cup mixed team gold in snowboard cross, edging Great Britain by four‑hundredths of a second. Later in March, Josie partnered Adam Lambert to silver in the Montafon mixed team event. 

At the Engadin 2025 World Championships in St Moritz, Josie advanced to the semi‑finals in the individual event, with Italy’s Michela Moioli taking gold, before teaming with Adam in the mixed team event where Australia 1 placed sixth. Australia 2 (Mia Clift/Cam Bolton) won silver, underlining the strength of the national program. Josie closed the 2024–25 season fourth on the overall World Cup standings for the second straight year.

After two wins and a second at the Australian New Zealand Cup over the domestic winter, Josie tackled the pre-Olympic World Cup season with more success. She opened her Olympic campaign with third in the individual and fifth in the team with Adam, at Cervinia (ITA).  

Josie then travelled to China with the Australian team for the double-header World Cups at Dongbeiya. After qualifying sixth, she progressed throughh the rounds to finished second in the big final, behind Britain’s 2021 World Champion Charlotte Bankes. Josie then qualified 13th for the final race of the season, before finishing fifth (first in small final) with teammate Mia Clift placing fourth. Josie finished the 2025/26 season ranked third in the world.   

With multiple World Cup victories and podiums, a senior world championship silver and mixed team wins to her name before turning 23, Josie has become a powerhouse of Australia’s women’s snowboard cross. There is great anticipation for her next Olympic chapter and beyond. But her approach remains simple: keep learning, keep racing, and keep enjoying the ride. 

Despite her fantastic results at such as young age, Josie’s story remains rooted in family, community and a pathway that has kept her close to home. She continues to work within the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia and New South Wales Institute of Sport set‑ups, guided in recent seasons by coaches including Harald Benselin, and often reflects on how Jindabyne’s weather and terrain shaped the racer she is today.