In the space of a few hours Australia has picked up two bronze medals at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria from two girls who live ten minutes from the beach on the New South Wales Central Coast.

The amazing day for Australia started with bronze to Alex Fitch in snowboard slopestyle and finished with Fitch and the whole Team cheering ice hockey player Sharnita Crompton to a nail-biting bronze in the new Skills Challenge event in the evening.

“I left Fitchy a little note saying ‘congrats on being our only medallist’ when I left the Village to come and compete, and now I’m a medallist too! It’s just amazing,” Crompton said.

After six hockey skills tests over two hours in a cut-throat head-to-head format, Crompton’s 17 points was enough to win her the bronze medal on a three-way countback with Great Britain and Italy.

The skills involved a fastest lap, shooting accuracy, skating agility, fastest shot, passing precision and puck control.

You have never seen a happier person to win a bronze medal with the 17-year-old jumping for joy on the ice as the final results were displayed.

“I’m on top of the world,” Crompton told the packed media scrum. “I was aiming for a medal and to get that I feel so honoured. To represent Australia at the Youth Olympics is a great feat but to work so hard and win a medal ....well I’m speechless.”

“I’m now a medallist at the Youth Olympic Games and not a lot of people can say that, especially from Australia.”

Crompton lives 90 minutes away from Newcastle where her national league team is based and two hours from some rinks in Sydney. She attributed her medal to her driver and number one fan.

“I dedicate my medal to my mum because she has done everything for me,” an emotional Crompton said. “She would get up at five in the morning to drive me two hours away for training. She paid for specialist coaching and ice time to help me prepare for this event. I’m so thrilled she was here to watch me tonight.”

Since qualifying three days ago, where she was ranked fifth, Crompton and her coach Andrew Reynolds have been working tirelessly on her shooting and passing accuracy skills both on the ice and in the laundry of the Youth Olympic Village.

That was the difference tonight. She won the passing accuracy skill to earn the maximum points for a test and this also won her the countback for bronze.

Fitch and Crompton both had a mascot ceremony at their venues and will receive their bronze medals at the Medal Plaza in downtown Innsbruck on Friday night.

AOC