Mela's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Snowboard
Event: Slopestyle, Big Air
Olympic History: Milano Cortina 2026
Highlights: Beijing WC Big Air - I’ve never felt as mentally strong and comfortable in an event, and I think it’s something to hold highly in my career as something both to look back on and strive for in future events
Year Born: 2004
About Melia
Mela Stalker is a talented and determined rider who has earned her place at the Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games with a string of solid performances.
Raised on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Mela Stalker found her way to snow via a childhood spent skating and surfing. A family holiday to Niseko in Japan lit the spark, and by 2013 she was chasing winters between Australia and New Zealand.
At 11 she began competing across the ditch and went on to win her age division at the New Zealand Junior Nationals five years in a row, early proof of her balance, board control and appetite for progression.
Her jump to the international pathway came quickly. At 15 she represented Australia for the first time, placing fourth in both slopestyle and big air at the Rev Tour in Park City, the sort of double result that put her firmly on selectors’ radars. Back home she was recognised in Snow Australia’s Emerging Talent Program and was named a 2021 Emerging Talent Athlete Award winner, affirming her status as a rider to watch.
Mela’s senior breakthroughs arrived in the 2022–23 northern winter. She made the slopestyle final at World Championships in Bakuriani, finishing 11th, and placed 17th in the big air qualification round. For an Australian teenager in her first World Championships, it was a composed and credential‑building debut. A month later she capped the World Cup season by finishing eighth in the Silvaplana slopestyle final as teammate Tess Coady took silver.
The next season underlined her consistency. In March 2024 she reached the slopestyle final in Tignes and placed ninth, the best Australian performance of the weekend. The Tignes result was a clear marker of her ability to ride into finals on demanding European builds.
Mela added a new personal best in big air when she finished 10th at the Beijing World Cup at the end of 2024, narrowly missing the eight‑rider final and setting a new benchmark in the discipline for her career. She carried that form into the 2025 World Championships in Engadin–St Moritz, where she missed the 12‑rider slopestyle final by one spot in 13th and finished 24th in big air in a field dominated by Japan. Those rides, against the very best in the world on a World Championship stage, reflect a rider whose trick difficulty, execution and rails proficiency continue to trend upwards.
Beyond the World Cup and World Championships, Mela stayed busy sharpening her run construction and competition craft. She won a North American Cup slopestyle at WinSport Calgary on 25 February 2025, showing she can lead from the front on progressive rail‑to‑jump builds, and then opened the 2025 domestic season with victories in back‑to‑back Australia–New Zealand Cup slopestyle events at Thredbo in August
Across the 2025-26 season, she continued to deliver against the world’s best riders. At Secret Garden (CHN) she was fifth in big air and two weeks later she was seventh at Steamboat. At the Snowmass World Cup she qualified sixth for slopestyle and then improved in the final to fifth.
Mela’s is part of the New South Wales Institute of Sport program. She has invested considerable time on rails, but it’s her comfort linking technical features, and the way she has steadily lifted her jump difficulty, from clean 900s upwards, that stand out.
With Milano Cortina 2026 on the horizon, Mela has the results, experience and momentum to keep pressing her claims for a great result on Olympic debut. Olympic selection while continuing to explore all sides of competitive park and pipe snowboarding.
