Maddie's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Cross-Country Skiing
Olympic History: Milano Cortina 2026
Highlights: Representing Australia at Milano Cortina 2026
Year Born: 2005
About Maddie
Maddie Hooker is an Australian cross-country skier on the rise, with her consistent strong performances earning her selection for her first Olympic Winter Games at Milano Cortina 2026.
Growing up in Melbourne, Maddie made the most of limited time on snow, and learning race craft through school and domestic competition before taking bigger steps overseas. She has progressed from school snowsport in Australia to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation’s World Cup circuit and United States collegiate racing.
By her late teens, Maddie had moved into a high-performance environment in the United States, attending Stratton Mountain School, a well-known winter-sport boarding school, while continuing to represent Australia. Her progress through the national pathway soon saw her selected for major international junior campaigns, including the 2023 World Junior Championships in Whistler, Canada, and the 2024 World Junior Championships in Planica, Slovenia. At Planica in 2024, Maddie recorded a personal best at that level with 51st in the sprint event.
Back home each winter, she has consistently used Australian races as important building blocks. In 2022, she topped the Juniors at Falls Creek, an early sign she could convert overseas training into results on Australian snow. More recently, she has continued to feature near the front of domestic events, placing third at an Australia and New Zealand Cup event in Perisher during the 2025 season, behind Rosie Fordham and Isabella Moon. She also placed second behind Rosie in the Kangaroo Hoppet at Falls Creek later in the same domestic season, reinforcing her development across endurance formats.
Maddie has combined her international skiing with collegiate competition at Colby College in Maine, where she is listed as part of the Nordic skiing program and has progressed from freshman (2023–24) to junior (2025–26). The college environment has provided regular high-level racing opportunities in North America; among her results, she finished sixth at the Craftsbury Outdoor Centre in the 2024–25.
Maddie’s 2025–26 Northern Hemisphere season marked another significant step: lining up in the FIS Cross-Country World Cup. In late November 2025, she opened her World Cup season in Ruka, Finland, finishing 68th in the 10-kilometre classic race, 65th in the sprint, and 61st in the 20-kilometre mass start freestyle. She then raced in Trondheim, Norway in early December, placing 67th in the sprint and 72nd in the 10-kilometre freestyle.
The following week, Maddie competed in Davos, Switzerland, where she took part in both individual and team events. She teamed with Ellen Søhol Lie to finish 23rd in the team sprint and recorded 70th in the individual sprint and 64th in the 10-kilometre freestyle.
Those World Cup starts placed her among a growing group of Australian women gaining regular experience at the sport’s highest level as the international season builds toward the Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games in February 2026.
