Lara's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Ski Mountaineering
Olympic History: Milano Cortina 2026
Year Born: 1998
About Lara
Lara Hamilton represented Australia in cross country and trail running, before becoming an elite ski mountaineer. This talented athlete, DJ, vocalist and digital content producer is set to raise the profile of this new Olympic sport. She will compete in the sprint and mixed relay at Milano Cortina 2026.
Lara is a Sydney-born trail runner turned ski mountaineer who has helped put Australian “skimo” on the international map. Splitting her time in recent seasons between Europe and the Gunnison Valley in Colorado, she has combined uphill engine, fast descents and race craft to deliver Australia’s strongest female World Cup results in the sport that will debut at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games in 2026.
Lara grew up skiing and running, captaining school snowsports before transitioning from Nordic skiing to distance running in her late teens. In 2017, she won the Australian Under 20 cross country running title over 6 kilometres at Dapto and later that year took the Kangaroo Hoppet 21 km classic cross-country skiing race, signs of the aerobic base that still underpins her racing today. In the same year she was also third in the Sydney Running Festival 10 km.
A year later, Lara stepped onto the national open podium, finishing third in the women’s 10 km run at the Australian Cross Country Championships at Maleny and also earned bronze in the Oceania Cross Country Championships held alongside the meet. In 2018, she also competed at the World University Cross Country Championships in Switzerland (22nd individual, 3rd team) and also competed on the track in the Australian Championships/Commonwealth Games Trials over 5,000m (8th). Club racing with Sydney University Athletics Club further honed her tactical nous across relays and state events.
In 2023, she won the women’s UTA22 at Ultra‑Trail Australia in the Blue Mountains and represented Australia at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Austria, placing inside the top 30 in the classic up‑and‑down race
Her 2024 trail season confirmed that range. Hamilton finished sixth in the vertical kilometre at the Mountain Running World Cup Final, believed to be the best result by an Australian woman in that discipline, and wrapped the Golden Trail World Series year 27th overall. At season’s end, she dipped a ski into elite skimo at the World Cup Finals in Cortina d’Ampezzo, taking 20th in the vertical race and making her first international sprint start.
The breakthrough came in 2025 when skimo became her clear focus. At the Olympic test event in Bormio, she lined up for both sprint and mixed relay as Australia fielded a record team. A week later at the World Championships in Morgins, she paired with Olympian Phillip Bellinghamto qualify the B final in the mixed relay, then placed 19th in the vertical, Australia’s best result of the week in that event, before turning to the World Cup stop in Schladming where she stormed to 13th in the vertical, the best Australian World Cup finish yet recorded. The national federation later recognised her season by naming her Ski Mountaineering Female Athlete of the Year.
For her final preparations for the Olympic Winter Games, Lara competed at the ISMF World Cup at Solitude (USA) in December 2025, placing 31st in the sprint race. Three weeks out from the Olympics, she competed at the Courchevel World Cup in France, where she placed 40th in the sprint and 21st in the vertical.
As ski mountaineering readies for its Olympic debut with women’s sprint and the mixed relay to be held at Bormio’s Stelvio Ski Centre, Lara will not only be Australia’s first women’s Olympian in the sport she is raising the profile of this emerging discipline.
Off the snow, Lara writes practically about the sport for new participants, including a plain‑English explainer on “What is skimo?” and flagged an interview series, The Uphill Edge, to amplify voices from the Australian skimo community. She also hosts podcasts, is a DJ and vocalist.
Lara’s story to date is a blend of curiosity, persistence and a mountain athlete’s willingness to keep climbing, an approach that has already reshaped what is possible for Australians in the sport. She is set to write another chapter in her amazing sporting career and life at Milano Cortina 2026.
