He has started training with the Canadian team, but luge athlete Alex Ferlazzo has his sights set on a record fourth Olympic Games appearance for Australia at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Games.

The 28-year-old quips it’s nice to “be on both sides of the fence” and working with the Canadian luge squad in training, but he makes it clear where his loyalty will always lie when it comes to competition.

"It's surreal when everyone gets together and in the Aussie kit,” Ferlazzo says of representing Australia at the Olympic Games, “It's fantastic. I love it.”

Ferlazzo's unique and novel sporting story is that he grew up in Townsville, in far North Queensland, where it’s not unusual for temperatures to soar above 30 degrees celsius in winter. He took up luge at 15, by “luck of the draw” he explains, when his mum had a chance meeting in a pilates class with a former luge athlete who was spruiking the sport.

Ferlazzo lugged a wheeled training sled from Sydney to Townsville and started hurtling down the city’s iconic Mt Stuart.
This background is significant when you consider it in context of his new partnership with the Canadian luge squad. Over his athlete journey, Ferlazzo has gone from being somewhat of a sporting outlier to a highly respected competitor on the international circuit.

“I'm in partnership with the Canadian team now,” Ferlazzo says. “We’re working really well together, like the head coach and the sled builder in that team. We all get along, it's a fantastic relationship.

“It's a rebuild for myself, now training with them, but it's also rebuilding in their team and their Federation. So it's nice to be a part of that and be on both sides of the fence. I'm one of the old athletes in that group and that team. All the other athletes are young and I was brought over by the coach and sled tech, so it's nice to be on the athlete side and then also get a chance to see the coach’s and staff perspective too."

Australia’s first Olympic luge athlete, at the age of just 19, Ferlazzo has got better with every Games. He was 33rd in his Olympic debut, in Sochi 2014, 28th at PyeongChang 2018, then 16th in Beijing last year.

"It's tracking excellently,” Ferlazzo says of his start to this new Olympic cycle.

“The next world champs are in Altenburg, Germany [at the start of 2024] so that's the next big race for me. There's 10 World Cup races that I plan to go to next season and just keep it moving in the right general direction. The four year plan I wrote after the Games is going to plan at the moment, I’ve ticked all the boxes for the first part of the quad [four year Games cycle].”

Ferlazzo may be the first luge athlete from Far North Queensland, but he hopes he’s not the last. Last year he toured schools in Far North Queensland inspiring kids with his story.

“I was 15-years-old [when I took up the sport]. I was always up for an adventure, trying something new and also always quite athletic, and so it just kind of rolled on. I fell in love with the sport as soon as I tried it, and I’ve been pursuing it ever since.”

Winter Olympian and AIS Share a Yarn ambassador Bree Walker has added some special apparel to her winter kit as she continues to compete in monobob and bobsleigh across the globe.

Walker now dons First Nations inspired gloves which were designed by Share a Yarn mentor and Olympic boxer Brad Hore.

Walker said she was eager to wear something that represented all Australians around the world who were pursuing their sporting passion.

"As part of the AIS Share a Yarn program I have learnt so much about Indigenous culture, how important inclusion is in sport and heard from many Indigenous athletes about their journeys.

"I loved hearing from Brad Hore and how as a boxer he sacrificed a lot to live away from home for his Olympic dream.

"I could really relate to that and asked Brad and the legends at XTM Performance if we could create gloves that connects all traveling Australians to our home no matter where we are in the world," Walker said.

Hore discovered his love for art during the pandemic and to date has designed and created countless pieces.

"The story on the gloves represents the coming and going, the spirit and connection to home and country," he said.

"The kangaroo footprints lead us home, the icon of Australia, it’s our countries strength and resilience when we work in a mob.

"Each meeting space is one on country and one shared with another country, but it is the representation of a home away from home, surrounded by our connection to those we call 'Aussies'.

"The lines show no matter where we are in the world, a tie connects us to where we have been and where we are going, it’s the dream and the journey that connects us all."

Walker is one of 10 athlete ambassadors undertaking the AIS Share a Yarn program which connects athletes with First Nations communities and teaches them about differing cultures, lands, histories and people within them.

QAS bobsleigh athlete Bree Walker has headed to North America for the first time in years, heading to the Lake Placid in America for a training camp on the former Olympic track, and also to compete in two North American Cup monobob events.

On the first day of competition, Walker took home the gold medal, finishing ahead of 2023 World Champion Laura Nolte of Germany, with her teammate and 2018 Olympic gold medallist Lisa Buckwitz in third.

On day two, the top-two places on the podium were reversed, with Nolte taking the win ahead of Walker, and Buckwitz again in third.

With Walker likely to be back competing in the North American World Cup events next season, and Lake Placid hosting the 2025 World Championships, the podium results will give her great confidence for the future.

Australian figure skating pair Hektor Giotopoulos Moore and Anastasia Golubeva have recorded an incredible eighth place at their first ever senior World Championship event in Saitama, Japan.

After finishing in the silver medal position at the past two Junior World Championships, the pair showed they are ready to compete against the very best in the world, to record Australia's best World Championship result since Anthony Liu finished seventh in 2002.

The pair started off in the short program scoring 61.85 points to be ranked in 11th place, with just one mistake holding them back from a higher score.

In the free skating final event, the pair had an unbelievable performance to score a personal best 127.52 points, the fifth highest of the round, moving them up into eighth place with a total score of 189.47, also a career best.

In first place was Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi of Japan with 222.16, with Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of the USA in scoring 217.48 in second, and Italy's Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii in third with 208.08.

Also representing Australia at the World Championships was Holly Harris and Jason Chan in the ice dance.

The couple reached the top-20 free dance final skate with a 16th place performance in the short program scoring 64.80.

In the free dance, the couple improved to have the 15th best performance of the round, scoring a career best 104.67 points, giving them a final ranking of 16th overall with a total score of 169.47.

Harry Laidlaw competed in the World Cup giant slalom double event in the Slovenian ski resort of Kranjska Gora.

On day one of competition, the 2018 Olympian finished the first run in 38th place, 4.03 seconds behind Marco Odermatt of Switzerland who went on to win the race in the second run.

In the second day, Laidlaw finished 40th in the first run, 5.42 seconds behind Odermatt, who made it a double victory for the Swiss skier.

Laidlaw's World Cup season is now complete, with just the World Cup final remaining with a limited field featuring the top-25 athletes per discipline in the overall rankings.

2022 Olympian Brendan Corey has had a successful ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Championships in Seoul, Korea, recording two top-10 performances in his best ever finish at the event.

The result is Australia's best at the World Championships since the 1990's, when the men's relay team, featuring Olympic champion Steven Bradbury, had a number of top-five finishes.

Corey started the 1500m event in great form, winning his opening quarter final heat to advance direct into the semi-finals.

In the semi-final, Corey grabbed second place in a tight finish to make it through to his first ever World Championship A-final. Up against a field of eight skaters, Corey finished in sixth place setting a new personal best.

On the final day of competition, Corey continued his strong skating into the 1000m reaching the semi-final for the second time in Seoul. With a spot in the A-Final on the line, Corey narrowly missed out finishing in third place, putting him in the B-Final.

In the B-Final, Corey crossed the line in third, giving him his second top-10 for the World Championships in eighth place.

Corey also competed in the 500m, his third distance at the World Championships, placing 26th.

IMAGE
Brendan Corey (left) in action in the 1000m B-Final
Photo: Chung Sung-Jun/ISU

Doug Crawford has finished in a seasons best 33rd place at the ski cross World Cup event in Veysonnaz, Switzerland.

After two days of heavy snowfall, which saw 70-80cm of snow fall, the event organisers were forced to cancel the qualification time trial round, with all athletes taking part in head-to-head racing.

Fortunately conditions improved on the Sunday for the race to go ahead.

In the opening round of 64, the VIS skier was unable to advance to the next round, after crossing the line in third, giving him a final result of equal 33rd position.

Taking victory was David Mobaerg of Sweden in the men's event, with local Swiss skier Fanny Smith the women's event winner.

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IMAGE
Doug Crawford at the recent World Championships in Bakuriani, Georgia. Photo: Chris Hocking/OWIA

Madison Hoffman has continued her great form on the Nor-Am circuit, recording her first career gold medal in the giant slalom last week at Stratton Mountain Resort in the USA.

The 22-year-old has now recorded three podium's at the Nor-Am level, including two silver medals in the slalom from the week prior in Osler Bluff, Canada.

On day one of competition at Stratton, Hoffman finished in fourth place just missing the podium, but improved straight away on day two, with the fastest time of all competitors.

In the final run, Hoffman had the third fastest time, but with her lead from the first run, it was enough to secure victory with a two-run time of 2:13.73 seconds, 0.79 seconds ahead of the second place finisher.

Hoffman is now ranked fourth in the giant slalom and sixth in the slalom on the overall Nor-Am cup standings with the final race to come in Whistler, Canada, at the end of the month.

Three-time Olympian Greta Small has returned to competition after a  back injury forced her out of the previous weekends event in Switzerland, taking part in a triple World Cup speed race in Kvitfjell, Norway.

The NSWIS skier competed in the super-g event first, finishing in 41st place, then the downhill on the following day placing 42nd, and on the third and final day, another super-g event was ran, with the 27-year-old finishing 42nd again.

It was the final World Cup stop of the season for Small, with just the World Cup Finals speed events remaining in Soldeu, Andorra, which has a reduced field.

Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore have become just the second Australian pair to win a medal at the International Skating Union (ISU) Junior World Championships, after finishing second in Calgary, Canada.

The first pair to medal at the Junior World Championships for Australia were Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya and Harley Windsor, who were victorious back in March, 2017.

The short program saw the pair ranked third, 7.77 points behind first place after scoring 59.18.

In the final free program skate, the pair put in another good performance with the second highest skate of the round with 111.18 points.

Their final combined score for both programs was 170.36, putting them 13.11 points behind event winners Sophia Baram and Daniel Tioumentsev of the USA with a total score of 1183.47, with Ukrainians Violetta Sierova and Ivan Khobta in third scoring 159.39.

Vlada Vasiliev also made her World Championship debut for Australia in the women's single events, placing 42nd after scoring 36.93 in the short program.

Harry Laidlaw has competed in the World Cup giant slalom event at the Palisades ski resort in Lake Tahoe, USA, finishing in 49th place.

Laidlaw finished the fist run in a time of 1:11.35, 2.92 seconds behind Marco Odermatt of Switzerland in first place, missing out on the top-30 required for the second run.

The event was won by Marco Schwarz of Austria, with Odermatt in second and Rasmus Windingstad of Norway in third.

VIS skier Doug Crawford has taken part in the second World Championships of his career, finishing in 25th place in Bakuriani, Georgia.

The 24-year-old missed out on advancing to the 32-man final after qualifying in 35th place, completing his run in a time of 1:24.01, 3.7 seconds behind the fastest qualifier, Satoshi Furuno of Japan.

The men's event was won by Italian Simone Deromedis, with Sanda Naeslund of Sweden extending her amazing winning streak of 14 months with gold in the women's event.

2022 Olympian Bree Walker has completed her 2022-2023 international competition season in style, with podium performances in the Europe Cup two-woman events with brakewoman Sarah Blizzard in Winterberg, Germany.

In the first event, Walker and Blizzard finished in a time of 58.87, putting them in second place, just 0.1 seconds behind event winners Margot Boch and Carla Senechal of France.

Later that day the QAS slider and Blizzard competed in the second race on the Winterberg track, this time finishing with a time of 58.51 seconds, 0.32 seconds behind Boch who won both events.

Blizzard also competed in the monobob, piloting herself to a seventh place finish.

It was another successful season for Walker, highlighted by:

Monobob

• Two World Cup podium's (Silver and Bronze)
• Fourth place at the World Championships
• Three Europe Cup gold medals

Two-Woman - Bree Walker & Sarah Blizzard

• Personal best fifth place World Cup finish
  
• Two Europe Cup podiums in Winterberg
  

Australian Ice Dance couple Holly Harris and Jason Chan have finished eighth at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Colorado Springs, USA, matching their previous best result at the event.

Competing in the opening rhythm dance, the couple scored 60.71 points and ranked ninth, with a fall impacting their score.

The couple had a much improved final free dance performance, recording a career best score of 101.98 points, the seventh best of all competitors.

With a total combined score from both combined programs of 162.69 points, the final ranking for the couple was eighth place, finishing behind event winners Madison Chock and Evan Bates of America with a score 220.81.

Also in action for Australia at the Four Continents was India Nette and Eron Westwood who finished in 11th in the ice dance, Vlada Vasilev who placed 18th in the women's singles, and Darian Kapitch who also placed 18th in the men's singles.

The ISU 2023 World Figure Skating Championships will be held in Saitama, Japan, from March 20–26.

2022 Olympian Brendan Corey has continued his excellent season, equalling his previous personal best in the 1000m at the same location last season, with a fifth place finish at Dordrecht in The Netherlands.

Competing in the first 1000m distance event, Corey made a great start winning his rounds in the preliminaries and heats. In the quarter-finals, Corey finished in second to advance to the semi-final.

In the semi-final, Corey had a great skate to break the Australian record for 1000m with a time of 1:23.741 , finishing in third to reach his third A-Final of the season.

In the final, Corey had another strong skate, but was unable to land on the podium missing out by less than half a second.

Corey also competed in a second 1000m distance event in Dordrecht, finishing 19th.

"With three A-Finals this season, I feel like I have made a huge step forward from last season," said the 26-year-old.

Other Australian's in action in Dordrecht included:

Men
Keanu Blunden 35th (500m), 39th (1000m #1)
Lucas Wareham 46th (500m), 44th 1500m)
Ihan Yoo 44th (1000m #2), 25th (1500m)
5000m Relay Team 13th

Women
Hyo Jin Kim 29th (500m), 26th (1500m)

The World Cup season is now complete for the short track athletes, with the World Championships to take place from March 10-12 in Seoul, Korea.

 

Bree Walker has continued her success on the Igls track in Innsbruck, Austria, with a silver medal performance at her final  IBSF World Cup monobob event of the season.

The podium performance is the QAS athlete's second for the season at the World Cup level, following her bronze medal last month in Altenberg, Germany, and the fifth time Walker has medalled on the Igls track.

Walker made a strong start recording the third fastest time in the opening run in 54.71 seconds. In the second and final run, the 2022 Olympian improved to finish with a time of 54.68 seconds which was the second fastest of the round.

Her two-run combined time of 1:49.38 was just 0.18 seconds behind event winner Lisa Buckwitz of Germany, with Canadian Cynthia Appiah rounding out the podium 0.04 seconds behind Walker in third.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better way to round out my World Cup season with the second place here in Igls,” said the 30-year-old from Queensland.

“I really enjoy sliding here, It’s easy to make it down this track, but sometimes hard to make it down fast because the slightest mistake can cost you so much time, so that provides a great challenge.”

“I’m also very happy to be improving on my results from race to race. The competition in monobob this year has really levelled up which makes for fierce racing, which is always fun.”

“It’s been a big transition season for me. My new coach Pierre Lueders has helped me take my driving to a whole new level, which has been such an exciting process.”

Walker will now join up with Sarah Blizzard to compete in the two-woman Europe Cup race in Winterberg, Germany, on February 18.

2018 Olympian Harry Laidlaw will head into the 2023 FIS Alpine World Championships full of confidence, after recording his first ever European Cup podium in Folgaria, Italy.

The podium is the first ever Australian giant slalom European Cup medal, and the first of any kind since Jono Brauer finished first in January 2006 competing in slalom. 

Competing in two Europa Cup giant slalom's in the Italian resort, Laidlaw achieved his podium performance in the first race with a silver medal in the two run time of 1:53.90, 1.15 seconds behind event winner George Steffey of America. Also in action for Australia was Louis Muhlen-Schulte in 52nd and Hugh McAdam who did not qualify for the second run.

In the second race, Laidlaw finished in eighth, with McAdam not qualifying for the second run, and Muhlen-Schulte not able to complete his second run.

The results see Laidlaw move up to be ranked fourth on the European Cup giant slalom standings.

Later this week Laidlaw, Muhlen-Schulte and McAdam will compete in the parallel, giant slalom and slalom events at the World Championships in Courchevel and Meribel, France.

2022 Olympian Brendan Corey has achieved another World Cup personal best in the 1500m distance, this time finishing in sixth place in Dresden, Germany.

Corey has had a great season so far in the longest distance, and continued his great form to reach his second A-Final of the season.

In the A-Final, Corey finished in sixth place, improving on his eighth place finish earlier in the season in Almaty, Kazakhstan.Corey also competed in the 500m, finishing in 29th place, just missing out on advancing to the next round after finishing second in his repechage quarter final heat.

Reflecting on his performances in Germany, Corey commented:

"That was my best finish so far, and I am absolutely chuffed about my performance yesterday."

"In the semi-final there was a lot of bumping and grinding in that race, but I managed to get through and barely make it across the line in second, as out of the final turn my blade poked into the ice and I stumbled."

"I am happy to take part in finals, it's such a great experience and I hope to see more of those in the future."

"Overall I am pretty happy with my best finish so far. In the 500m I had a bit of touch luck, but that's Short Track."
Also competing for Australia:
Keanu Blunden 58th (1000m), 48th (1500m #2)
Lucas Wareham 50th (500m), 47th 1500m #1)
Hyo Jin Kim 36th (500m), 28th (1500m #1)
The next round of the Short Track Speed Skating World Cup tour will take place next weekend in Dordrecht, Netherlands, on February 10-12.

Article courtesy of Snow Australia

The 47th FIS Alpine Ski World Championships start on Monday with a small but determined Australian contingent ready to hit the French resorts of Courchevel and Meribel.

Triple-Olympian Greta Small will start her campaign on day one in the alpine combined event, and race the speed events over the course of the opening week.

Going into her fifth World Championships, the 27-year-old has lost none of her passion despite first racing the event as a teenager.

“It has given me a chance to reflect on what I’ve achieved,” said Small. “Going to my first World Championships at just 17 years old and now, ten years later I’m still here chasing my dreams.

“I remember how excited and proud I was to race in Schladming 2013, and I’m going to bring that same energy into Meribel 2023.”

Going into his third World Championships, Harry Laidlaw will be looking to continue the form he has shown already this season.

Currently ranked inside the top five on the Europa Cup standings, Laidlaw is knocking on the door of World Cup points having missed the top 30 by just 0.21s in Schladming last week.

Joining Laidlaw in the men’s technical races is Beijing Olympian Louis Muhlen-Shulte who has also earned some encouraging results on the highly-competitive slalom World Cup circuit.

“This is my first World Championships, so I am very excited about that,” said the 24-year-old. “I have made a lot of changes and progress in my slalom skiing and I am sorting out a few things on the GS side.

“I feel that competing in Beijing at the Olympics in 2022 definitely gives me more experience to draw from, as well as all the World Cup events I have competed in this season.

“I am constantly gaining more knowledge and a better understanding of how to do my best on any given day.”
The FIS Alpine World Championships run from Monday 6 to Sunday 19 February. Predominantly, the women’s events will be held in Meribel and the men’s at Courchevel, with both venues sharing the parallel events.

Click here for the World Championships schedule and results

Download the FIS App for live timing throughout the event

Bree Walker has created history recording Australia's best ever sliding sports performance at an IBSF World Championships, narrowly missing the podium in fourth place in the monobob event in St Moritz, Switzerland.

Competing on the spectacular hand cut ice on the natural St Moritz track, the QAS athlete put down four great runs to finish just two tenths of a second shy of the podium.

The combined total time for Walker's four runs was 4:45.77, which had her finish 0.92 seconds behind event winner Laura Nolte of Germany, with American Kaillie Humphries in second and Lisa Buckwitz of Germany in third.

"The week was really great, we had really good training figuring out the track because it changes a little bit each year," said the 2022 Olympian.

"We had a really good plan with lot's of help from the OWIA and my team, which all came together quite well so I felt very prepared for the race on the weekend."

"With the longer four run format, you have to just take it run by run, I was happy with how I executed each run.

"I had a plan with my coach and my team, and we really stuck to that plan and I am happy with how it ended up and the results at the end of the day."

Three-time Olympian Alex Ferlazzo has competed at the 2023 FIL World Championships in Oberhof, Germany, taking part in the sprint and singles events.

Ferlazzo made a strong start to the event, qualifying for the 15-man sprint final in 13th place.

In the sprint final, Ferlazzo finished in 14th place in a time of 34.137 seconds, just 0.593 seconds behind Felix Loch of Germany in first place. 

The result was a personal best finish for Ferlazzo at the World Championships, with his previous best being a 24th in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2017.

In the singles event, Ferlazzo was having a solid run sitting in 13th place at the midway point of his run, but unfortunately crashed shortly after, sliding across the line in 29th place which ended his competition.

Jackie Narracott has achieved her best ever performance at an IBSF World Championships, finishing in 11th place in St Moritz, Switzerland.

Competing in the four run major championship format, Narracott's first two runs were her best, with both runs ranked the 10th fastest overall.

Unfortunately Narracott slipped back with the 14th fastest run 3, and 13th fastest run 4, giving her a four run total time of 4:36.60 seconds, 3.03 seconds behind event winner Susanne Kreher of Germany.

The 2022 Olympic silver medallist commented after the event.

“Not quite what I was intending on doing, but it’s my best result, a couple of skids and it could have been a different story."
 
“It’s hard to have a hard time sliding down this track, even when you are sideways.”
 
“It’s always great to have my family here, they obviously weren’t in Beijing or here last year, so to have them here this year is really special.”
 
Narracott also competed in the mixed teams skeleton competition, joining fellow countryman Peter Makrides, with the duo finishing 15th.

Image: Jackie Narracott flying out of the start in St Moritz © OWIA/Chris Hocking