Cooper Woods has announced his arrival as a top international mogul skier with an incredible 6th place finish in freezing and blustery conditions at the Zhangjiakou Genting Snow Park.
The 21-year-old, who hails from Pambula Beach on the NSW South Coast, scored a highly impressive 78.88 in a red-hot men's final, with Sweden's Walter Wallberg upsetting pre-event favourite Canadian Mikael Kingsbury to take gold with a score of 83.23.
Cooper produced his best score of the night at the end in the super final, after working his way up through last chance qualifying, the final 20, the final 12 and eventually the final six in the cutthroat format.
In making the final six, Cooper joined Dale Begg-Smith (2006 & 2010) and Matt Graham (2018) as the only Australian men to make the a moguls super final.
"Oh wow, what a night," a jubilant Cooper said following his final run.
"It was a star-struck moment at the start of the super final actually.
"This is what I've been working towards, and I just stuck to the plan and look what happened.
"I'm really proud of what I did out there, I'm just so happy."
Cooper's teammate Brodie Summers also put in outstanding performances to finish 10th, which marked the first time two Australians had reached the 12-man final together.
The top-10 achieve for Brodie, a triple Olympian, was his best finish in Olympic competition which beats a 13th place at Sochi in 2014.
Earlier in the evening, 2018 silver medallist Matt Graham was unable to advance to the final 20 after a challenging second run, which followed his DNF in the opening qualifying round.
Matt showed enormous courage just to make the start line in Beijing, having fractured his collarbone in December 2021.
In an emotional state post-competition, Matt refused to blame the injury on his performance.
"I don't think it stopped my performance. I just wish I could have done better," Matt said while fighting back tears.
"It's so tough to describe how I'm feeling, but this hurts more than the collarbone.
"I know I put pressure on myself after not finishing on Thursday, but I felt I was handling it really well, I just know I had so much more to give."
James Matheson was able to improve on his opening round performance with a score of 73.20, however the score was not enough to see him move through to the last 20.
A two-time Olympian, James announced his retirement from the sport following the competition and mentioned that father time has caught up with him.
"It's a young man and young lady's sport, the body just can't keep going," James said.
He will leave the sport knowing the future is incredibly bright.
"Moguls is an individual sport, but we are an incredible close-knit team. I get to watch people I regard as family keep competing, which is pretty good."
Geoff Lipshut, Chef De Mission of the Beijing 2022 Australian Winter Olympic Team, paid tribute to James' career and character.
"James is a model high performance athlete and student. He successfully balanced sport and studies and proudly represented his country at two Olympic Games," Mr Lipshut said.
"James has always been the nicest of nice guys in the mogul program and the best of teammates."
In an emotional night for Australia's moguls team, Taylah O'Neill also announced her retirement after a knee injury curtailed her capacity to compete in Beijing.
Mr Lipshut acknowledged the contribution the 27-year-old has made to Australian mogul skiing.
"Taylah is a credit to herself and sport. After skiing at the 2014 Games, Taylah had a run of injuries which saw her miss 2018, and another difficult injury journey to 2022.
"Taylah had always been a great teammate and contributor on and off the snow."
The attention now turns to the Jakara Anthony, Britt Cox and Sophie Ash in the women's moguls on Sunday. Sophie will hope to use qualifying at 9pm AEDT to join Jakara and Britt in the final from 10:30pm AEDT.
olympics.com.au
Damian Kelly
The 21-year-old, who hails from Pambula Beach on the NSW South Coast, scored a highly impressive 78.88 in a red-hot men's final, with Sweden's Walter Wallberg upsetting pre-event favourite Canadian Mikael Kingsbury to take gold with a score of 83.23.
Cooper produced his best score of the night at the end in the super final, after working his way up through last chance qualifying, the final 20, the final 12 and eventually the final six in the cutthroat format.
In making the final six, Cooper joined Dale Begg-Smith (2006 & 2010) and Matt Graham (2018) as the only Australian men to make the a moguls super final.
"Oh wow, what a night," a jubilant Cooper said following his final run.
"It was a star-struck moment at the start of the super final actually.
"This is what I've been working towards, and I just stuck to the plan and look what happened.
"I'm really proud of what I did out there, I'm just so happy."
Cooper's teammate Brodie Summers also put in outstanding performances to finish 10th, which marked the first time two Australians had reached the 12-man final together.
The top-10 achieve for Brodie, a triple Olympian, was his best finish in Olympic competition which beats a 13th place at Sochi in 2014.
Earlier in the evening, 2018 silver medallist Matt Graham was unable to advance to the final 20 after a challenging second run, which followed his DNF in the opening qualifying round.
Matt showed enormous courage just to make the start line in Beijing, having fractured his collarbone in December 2021.
In an emotional state post-competition, Matt refused to blame the injury on his performance.
"I don't think it stopped my performance. I just wish I could have done better," Matt said while fighting back tears.
"It's so tough to describe how I'm feeling, but this hurts more than the collarbone.
"I know I put pressure on myself after not finishing on Thursday, but I felt I was handling it really well, I just know I had so much more to give."
James Matheson was able to improve on his opening round performance with a score of 73.20, however the score was not enough to see him move through to the last 20.
A two-time Olympian, James announced his retirement from the sport following the competition and mentioned that father time has caught up with him.
"It's a young man and young lady's sport, the body just can't keep going," James said.
He will leave the sport knowing the future is incredibly bright.
"Moguls is an individual sport, but we are an incredible close-knit team. I get to watch people I regard as family keep competing, which is pretty good."
Geoff Lipshut, Chef De Mission of the Beijing 2022 Australian Winter Olympic Team, paid tribute to James' career and character.
"James is a model high performance athlete and student. He successfully balanced sport and studies and proudly represented his country at two Olympic Games," Mr Lipshut said.
"James has always been the nicest of nice guys in the mogul program and the best of teammates."
In an emotional night for Australia's moguls team, Taylah O'Neill also announced her retirement after a knee injury curtailed her capacity to compete in Beijing.
Mr Lipshut acknowledged the contribution the 27-year-old has made to Australian mogul skiing.
"Taylah is a credit to herself and sport. After skiing at the 2014 Games, Taylah had a run of injuries which saw her miss 2018, and another difficult injury journey to 2022.
"Taylah had always been a great teammate and contributor on and off the snow."
The attention now turns to the Jakara Anthony, Britt Cox and Sophie Ash in the women's moguls on Sunday. Sophie will hope to use qualifying at 9pm AEDT to join Jakara and Britt in the final from 10:30pm AEDT.
olympics.com.au
Damian Kelly
RSS Feed
