Harry Laidlaw produced a pair of extremely impressive European Cup giant slalom results last week in Zinal, Austria.

The 2018 Olympian narrowly missed the podium on both days, finishing in fifth place on day one, and improved one spot higher to finish fourth on day two, just 0.5 second behind third place, giving Laidlaw his third top-10 European Cup performance for the month.

Laidlaw is currently at the World Cup in Alta Badia, Italy, for a double giant slalom event. In the first event overnight, he did not finish his first run, and will be looking to improve in the second event which will take place tonight.

Louis Muhlen-Schulte also competed in the Zinal giant slalom races, with his best result being a 25th place finish on day two. The 2022 Olympian also competed in the Italian National Championships Slalom event overnight, finishing in eighth. Muhlen-Schulte will compete in the World Cup slalom event in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, on December 22.

Greta Small was in action in Switzerland competing in the women's speed events at St Moritz. The three-time Olympian had her best performance in the second downhill, finishing in 45th place.

2022 Olympians Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt have booked their place for the World Championships, with a victory at the Australian National Curling Championships held in New Zealand.

The pair went through undefeated, to record their third National Championship title together, winning the final with a sore of 9 to 3 against Team Westhagen/Panoussi.

The 2023 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships will take place in Gangneung, Korea, from April 22 to 29.

Results
1 - Gill/Hewitt
2 - Westhagen/Panoussi
3 - Boersen/Francey

Alex Ferlazzo has continued his great start to the season, with a strong week of competition in Park City, USA.

The three-time Olympian matched his previous best World Cup luge result of 11th from the week before, finishing 0.64 seconds behind winner Dominik Fischnaller of Italy.

Times from the event used for to rank the American-Pacific Championships, with Ferlazzo finishing in third place.

A sprint World Cup luge event also took place the following day, with Ferlazzo recording yet another personal best performance, with an impressive sixth place finish.
The luge World Cup tour is now set for a three week break, resuming at Sigulda in Latvia on January 7.

Brendan Corey has recorded his second World Cup top-10 of the season, with a ninth place finish in the 1500 metres in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

With Almaty hosting two weekends of World Cup competition, the 2022 Olympian continued his form from the previous week where he made the A-Final and finished in eighth place.

Corey had to progress through the repechage rounds to reach the semi-final, where he finished in fourth, advancing him to the B-Final.

In the B-Final, Corey had a strong race to finish second, giving him a final ranking of ninth.

Corey also competed in the 500m, but received a penalty in the quarterfinals exiting from the competition in 20th place.

The next Short Track Speed Skating World Cup will take place in Dresden, Germany, on February 3-5.

Brendan Corey leading the way
IMAGE: Australian Ice Racing

2022 Olympic silver medallist Jackie Narracott has recorded her best result of the season, narrowly missing the World Cup podium with a fourth place finish in Lake Placid, USA.

In a strong return to form competing in heavy snowfall on the Lake Placid track, on both runs Narracott had the third fastest times of the round, giving her a total time of 1:51.43 seconds.

Narracott was just 0.06 seconds off the podium, and 0.37 behind event winner Tina Hermann of Germany.

The IBSF Skeleton and Bobsleigh World Cup tour will resume in Europe in the new year, with Narracott competing in a World Cup event on January 13 in Altenberg, Germany, before the World Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland on January 26-27. 

Jackie Narracott flying out of the start in Lake Placid
IMAGE - Viesturs Lacis

Anastasiia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore have continued their strong junior performances, claiming victory at the International Skating Union (ISU) Junior Grand Prix final in Torino, Italy.

The pair are now the second Australians to win gold at the Junior Grand Prix Final, joining Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya and Harley Windsor who won the prestigious event in 2017.

The end of year ISU Grand Prix Final brings together the six best juniors and six best senior skaters in each discipline to determine the best of the best.

The short program saw the pair ranked second, 3.13 points behind first place after scoring 60.19 points.

In the final free program skate, the pair put in a dominant showing with the highest score of the round with 121.18 points, moving into the gold medal position with a combined total score of 181.37.

Rounding out the podium was Sophia Baram and Daniel Tioumentsev of the USA with a total score of 176.78 and fellow Americans Cayla Smith and Andy Deng in third with 150.51.

2022 Olympian Brendan Corey has impressed again with a World Cup PB in the 1500m, finishing in eighth place in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Corey progressed through the quarter final round in third place gaining direct passage to the semi-finals avoid the repechage rounds. In the semi-final, Corey qualified for the A-Final in first place his first time in the 1500m distance on World Cup.

In the A-Final, Corey was out in front for most of the race, but unfortunately crashed with four laps to go to finish in eight place.

The Short Track Speed Skating tour will remain in Almaty for another World Cup event at the same location next weekend.

The World Cup Alpine tour returned to Europe over the weekend, with Louis Muhlen-Schulte and Harry Laidlaw in action for Australia.

Muhlen-Schulte made his first World Cup start of the season finishing in 48th place in the slalom.

In the giant slalom, Laidlaw was unable to finish the first run, recording a DNF.

The next men's technical events on the World Cup tour are a double giant slalom event in Alta Badia, Italy, on December 18-19, with a slalom event at Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, on December 22.

QAS Bobsleigh pilot Bree Walker has won her third straight Europe Cup monobob event to start the season, this time in Innsbruck, Austria.

Unfortunately in the second race Walker injured her hamstring in the push on the first heat, and withdrew from heat number two.

Despite picking up the injury, Walker still won the first heat, with her time a new track record.

Sarah Blizzard also continued to improve in her first season competing in monobob, finishing eighth on day one and just missing the podium in fourth on day two.

Alex Ferlazzo has commenced his World Cup season in style, recording a personal best 11th place finish at the World Cup event in Whistler, Canada.

The three-time Olympian warmed up for the event with a third place finish in the Nations Cup event on the same course a few days prior, and carried that form over to the World Cup.

In the first run competing at the venue from the Vancouver 2010 Games, Ferlazzo had the ninth fastest run with a time of 50.159 seconds. In the second and final run, Ferlazzo recorded a time of 50.345 which moved him back into 11th place overall with a two run time of 1:40.504, recording a new personal best performance.

Ferlazzo will now head to Park City, USA, for the next round of World Cup competition scheduled to take place on December 16-17.

Last weekend saw the return to action for Australia’s top alpine skiers who were competing in World Cup and Europa Cup events in Canada and Europe, respectively.

In cold and icy conditions, Lake Louise (CAN) hosted three women's speed events, with three time Olympian Greta Small competing in two downhill and one super-g.

The weekend was dominated by downhill queen Sofia Goggia of Italy, who scored back-to-back downhill wins, and Suisse skier Corinne Suter, winner of the super-g and twice on the podium in the downhills. Small finished twice in top-40, finishing 40th and 42nd in the two downhill events, and 39th in the super-g.

In Gurgl, Austria, Harry Laidlaw and Louis Muhlen-Schulte were in the starting gate of two Europa Cup giant slalom races, as they continue their preparation ahead of the World Cup events in Val d'Isere, France, later in the month.

Laidlaw finished in the top-ten in the first of the two giant slaloms, just 0.27 from a podium position, scoring 26 Cup points, while Muhlen finished in 33rd position. The second giant slalom event was unlucky for the two Aussies skiers, with both registering DNF results in the first run.

Laidlaw and Muhlen-Schulte will travel to Val d'Isere next, where two technical races are scheduled for the 10-11 December. Laidlaw will compete in the giant slalom, while Muhlen will focus on the slalom.

Article courtesy: Snow Australia

Australian figure skaters Holly Harris and Jason Chan have claimed victory at the Santa Claus Cup in Budapest, Hungary.

In a field of 14, the ice dance couple had the highest routines in both the rhythm dance and free dance programs to score 178.16 points in total

2022 Olympians Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt have competed in the Super Series curling event in Winnipeg, Canada, finishing with a 2-2 record in the group stage.

Gill (QAS) & Hewitt (VIS) opened the event up against Matsumura & Tanida of Japan, with the Japanese taking the win with a score of 7 to 11 points.

In their second match, Gill & Hewitt recorded their first victory at the event, with a 7-4 win over Just & Grindheim of Canada.

They backed up their second round win with another strong performance in the third match, finishing ahead of Canadian team Thevenot & Kalthoff with a score of 7-3.

In a high scoring final round robin match, Gill & Hewitt unfortunately lost to Norwegians Moen & Nedregotten 9-7.

2022 Olympic Silver medallist and QAS athlete Jackie Narracott has returned to World Cup competition in the North American season opening events.

The first stop of the season was on the 2010 Olympic track in Whistler, Canada, where Narracott finished in 13th place.
Last week the World Cup tour moved to the site of the 2002 Olympic Games in Park City, USA, with Narracott finishing in 18th.

The final event before the Christmas break for Narracott will be in Lake Placid, USA, with a World Cup scheduled for December 16.

QAS Bobsleigh pilot Bree Walker has made a great start to her northern hemisphere competition campaign with a double victory in the Europe Cup monobob events in Altenberg, Germany.

Walker commented after the race and a successful competition experience at her historically most challenging track.

"That one was special."

"If anyone knows my history on Altenberg, you would understand what it meant to just make it down this week on all four runners, let alone to walk away with the double win."

Sarah Blizzard also piloted her first monobob races, with a 12th place on day one, and tenth on day two.

The next stop on the Europe Cup circuit will be in Innsbruck Austria, on December 8-9.