MOGUL SKIING: Three Olympians and three debutants will make a six-strong Australian mogul skiing contingent at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.

Dual Olympian and 2017 World Champion Britt Cox will headline the Team in the women’s event, looking to improve upon her fifth-place finish from Sochi 2014.

The Victorian skier was the youngest member of the Australian Team when she finished 23rd on debut at Vancouver 2010 at the age of 15.

Now, with two Olympic Games, a World Championships gold medal and a Crystal Globe as the top ranked freestyle skier of 2017 under her belt, the 23-year-old is “looking forward to new experiences in Korea this time around.”

“Representing your country at the Olympic Games is a very special feeling, so I’m really excited to be named on the Aussie team for PyeongChang 2018,” Cox said.

“Australia has such a rich Olympic history both in summer and winter sports, so to be part of that legacy is a huge honour. I’m really inspired by the culture that exists within this Aussie team, we all push, encourage and inspire one another and that fuels me within my own personal sporting goals.”

Sochi Olympians Brodie Summers and Matt Graham will return for their second Games at the Korean ski resort.
After rupturing his ACL in September 2017 and undergoing a relentless rehabilitation program, PyeongChang will be Summer’s return to competition.

“I am aware that my situation leading in to the Games hasn't been ideal but I am also extremely fortunate to have a body that bounces back well from injury,” Summers said.

Given the setbacks and challenges he has overcome, Summers is feeling “immensely proud” about today’s announcement and is motivated to improve on his 13th place Sochi finish.

“Being selected to any Olympic Team is always a huge deal but given what I have been through over the past four and a half months I think it has just made me appreciate it so much more.

“There were days during the rehab process where I felt like the world was against me and maybe I was reaching too far when trying to come back in time for the Games, but my team and I have found a way to overcome every obstacle we have encountered along the way.

A more confident and experienced Graham will head into his second Games as the third ranked male mogul skier, fresh off four World Cup medals from seven events this season.

“I was only 19 years old in Sochi, so I was young and naive and wasn't quite sure on what to expect,” 23-year-old Graham said.

“With the experience gained in Sochi I will definitely feel more comfortable in the start gate at PyeongChang and I will better be able to handle the pressures and hype of the Games.

Graham, who finished 7th on debut at Sochi 2014, believes this year’s Team is “our strongest to date”.

“Australia's success in mogul skiing really goes back to the grass roots. I believe we have the best pathway in the world from the club programs at our local ski resorts all the way through the sporting institutes and to the national team. We have the best coaches and the best network of support so everything combined really creates a recipe for success.

“I get to travel the world and compete with and against my best friends, where we all enjoy the friendly competitive rivalry. My teammates push me to my limits and I try to return the favour as best as I can.”

Joining the more experienced athletes as part of this close-knit team include debutants Jakara Anthony (19), Madii Himbury (24) and Claudia Gueli (20).

Young-gun Anthony had her break out season last year, where she qualified for two World Cup finals, placed 12th at her World Championships debut at Sierra Nevada, Spain and was selected to wear the green and gold at the Sapporo 2017 Asian Winter Games, where she placed sixth.

The skier from Barwon Heads, Victoria made her first 6-skier Super Final this season at the Deer Valley World Cup, where she placed fifth, and will head into her debut Olympic Games with a world ranking of 14.

“It’s really, really exciting, it’s a dream come true,” Anthony said of her selection in the 2018 Team.

“I decided I wanted to be an Olympian back when I was a little kid, when I started mogul skiing as a 10-year-old. I’ve been working towards this for quite a while now so it’s a really big goal to have achieved.”

The men’s and women’s mogul skiing qualification events will be held at Bokwang Snow Park on Day 0 (February 9) with the women’s finals on Day 2 and the men’s on Day 3 (February 11-12).

Dale Begg-Smith claimed Australia’s first mogul skiing Olympic medal when he won gold at Torino 2006. He returned four years later to win silver at Vancouver 2010. Find out more about Australia’s freestyle skiing Olympians HERE.

Find out more about Freestyle Skiing at the PyeongChang Games HERE and see the full selected Team HERE.
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Georgia Thompson
olympics.com.au

Matt Graham and Jakara Anthony have finished the pre-Olympic season with a finals run at the Tremblant Moguls World Cup this morning.

Both missed out on advancing to the 6-man Super Final, with current world number three Graham finishing in 11th place and Anthony finishing in 13th.


22-year-old Graham qualified 11th with a score of 83.36, and held his position with a score of 83.92 in the first final.
Although he was pleased with the way he skied, the Sochi Olympian prefers a more technical course and said the Canadian mountain didn’t play to his strengths.


“I thought I skied quite well today, I thought I jumped well and executed the plan, but the judges didn’t really agree with that, so not much I can do about that,” Graham said.


“The course here is quite interesting, it’s not much of a standard course like the one we’ll see in Korea.


“The course is really flat and quite short, which makes it easy and when it’s easy everyone skis well, so it condenses the field quite a lot and everyone was scoring really high so you couldn’t really make any mistakes.


“Today was a different story to most events but none the less it was still a fun day skiing and now on to the next day.”


In the 6-man Super Final, Japanese skier Ikuma Horishima, brought an end to Canadian Mikael Kingsbury’s streak of 13 World Cup wins.


Horishima, currently ranked sixth, pipped Kingsbury for the gold medal by 0.51 points, taking the top spot on the podium with a score of 93.88, above the world number one’s silver-medal score of 93.27.


“[Horishima’s] put down runs which were really hard to beat,” Graham said. “I don’t think anyone would have beaten him today, his final run was quite amazing.”


Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Reikherd rounded out the podium with bronze, keeping his spot as second in the world, while Graham remains comfortably in third.


Things didn’t go to plan for Graham’s fellow Aussie teammates, Cooper Woods-Tapolovic, James Matheson and Rohan- Chapman-Davies, who finished 47th, 49th and 50th respectively.


In the women’s event 19-year-old Anthony qualified 15th for the small final, and boosted her final position up two places with score of 75.54 in the 16-women first final.


At the end of the Olympic qualification period she sits in 14th place on the world rankings.


Sochi 2014 gold medallist, Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe, won gold with 87.43, followed by her teammate Andi Laude in second on 85.35 and Kazakhstan’s Yulie Galysheva won bronze with 84.61.


Krystle Yin was the next best placed Australian female (29th) followed in quick succession be Madii Himbury (30th), Sophie Ash (31st), Claudia Gueli (34th) and Taylah O’Neill (35th).


The Aussie Mogul Team now head to Colorado for a final training camp before the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which kick off in three weeks’ time.


“From here we go down to Steamboat for five or six days of training before we head to Korea at the end of the month.
“So now it’s about putting the final touches together and trying to get the most out of the final days of preparation as possible,” Graham said.


Full results from the Tremblant World Cup are available HERE. The Australian Winter Olympian Team will be selected at the end of the week.


Georgia Thompson
olympics.com.au

With only three weeks until the Opening Ceremony of PyeongChang 2018, the final Olympic qualification Moguls World Cup kicks off in Tremblant, Canada this weekend.

Matt Graham will lead the charge for Australia, fresh off a bronze medal from last week’s Deer Valley World Cup.
With four podium finishes (three bronze and one silver) from five starts this season, Graham’s coach Steve Desovich, is pleased with the progress he is making this Olympic season.

“Matt has done a superb job in most of the events this season getting a handle on his speed and managing his run accordingly,” Desovich said.

"The aims for Matt are to achieve a number of top to bottom simulations in the two days of training beforehand, thereby placing him in a position to perform well in the event itself."

The current world number three will be joined by his Aussie teammates James Matheson, Rohan Chapman-Davies and Cooper Woods-Tapolovic.

Currently ranked 14th in the world, young-gun Jakara Anthony will headline the women’s team in Canada while current world number three Britt Cox attends a pre-Games training camp.

"Britt will not partake in the Tremblant event but will instead engage in a strength and conditioning camp to increase her physical capacities and recovery before Korea,” Desovich said.

19-year-old Anthony made her first Super Final last week at the first Deer Valley World Cup, finishing fifth overall. She has also recorded three top-20 performances this season and will look to carry that strong form in the final world cup before the Winter Olympics.

Joining Anthony on the course will be Sophie Ash, Claudia Gueli, Madii Himbury, Taylah O’Neill and Krystle Yin.

21-year-old Ash has already qualified for two small finals this year, in what is her debut World Cup season.

Teammate Gueli has also recorded a career-best result this year, finishing 10th at the Calgary World Cup in early January. 

The Tremblant Moguls World Cup kicks off at 1.30pm local time (5.30am AEDT Sunday 21st). Watch the finals live in Eurosport from 7.30am AEDT Sunday morning and follow the results online HERE.

Georgia Thompson
olympics.com.au

A nasty stomach virus, which required a hospital admission on Tuesday night, did not keep mogul skier Matt Graham from reaching his fourth podium in the second World Cup events in Deer Valley, Utah today.
 
Graham picked up the bronze medal behind Canada’s Mikhail Kingsbury and Kazakhstan’s Dmitry Reikherd, repeating a photo that has seen the three same men on the podium together in Calgary and Thaiwoo this season.  
 
Yesterday’s first World Cup saw a brave Graham put mind over matter to make the final 16 before bowing out of the first round of Finals in 13th. Another 24 hours was all it took for the world number three to sufficiently recover and deliver another consistent run.
 
“Coming from Calgary I picked up a pretty bad stomach virus on travel day and for the last few days I’ve been in the wars,” Graham said after being hospitalised for three hours on Tuesday night for intravenous treatment. 
 
“A lot of people of people telling me to take it easy and take the day off,” he said of the first World Cup. “I listened to my body and knew what I could do.”
 
“Yesterday in the start gate in the final, I had a big pain in my tummy and it took very ounce of resilience. I did make a mistake on the last jump.” 
 
“(Today) I was in a lot of pain, but it was better this afternoon. I wasn’t sure if I was going to compete until thirty minutes before the event. I mustered the energy.”
 
“The top guys had a great run too and to be up against those guys was special given the circumstance.  It was the icing on the cake.”
 
“For sure it’s worth it now,” he said.
 
“We have a week off now and I can recover then come out firing in the final event in Tremblant (Canada) before PyeonChang.”
 
World Champion Britt Cox has faced stiff competition this season and did so again today, coming away with a fourth place in the second Deer Valley World Cup after missing the Super Final yesterday.
 
Undeterred, Cox says she on track and feeling good.
 
“Really close to the podium tonight so I’m happy with my skiing but there’s definitely more in the tank and more that I need to do but happy to be in the mix in the super final tonight,” she said.
 
“I’m happy that I progressed through the rounds today - skied better in each round and my skiing is moving in a positive direction. I’m determined that I’m focussed on doing the work that needs to be done.”
 
Jakara Anthony, who reached her first Super Final yesterday placing 5th overall was again in good form today, qualifying into the top 16 and then coming 12th.
 
Other Australian results today included Taylah O’Neill placing 17th in the qualifying in an unlucky tie break situation to not make the final 16, Claudia Gueli 26th, Madii Himbury 36th, Krystle Yin 38th and Sophie Ash 48th. In the Men, James Matheson placed 44th, Cooper Woods-Topalovic 48th and Rohan Chapman-Davies DNF.
 
The final World Cup before the PyeongChang Games will be held in Tremblant, Canada on January 20th.
 
Belinda Noonan
OWIA

Mogul skier Jakara Anthony lived up to the promise she showed late last season in making her first World Cup Super Final in Deer Valley, Utah today.

Finishing 5th in a 51-strong field, Anthony laid down her best in all three runs, starting with sixth in the qualifying, again sixth in the small final before climbing one more to her final fifth career-best result.

The 19-year-old Victorian, whose previous best was ninth in Japan last year is “beyond excited”.

“It’s my first super final and I’m beyond excited,” she said at the finish of her event.

“I had a solid qualifying with sixth, backed it up with sixth in the final and then one more in the super final. It’s one of my best runs in comp that I’ve had.”

Anthony scored 73.90 points in the qualifying, increased to 78.04 in the small final and laid down 76.19 for her final run.

“It was awesome looking down at the crowd (for the super final) and I was a bit nervous but I got the job done with a fifth.”

Deer Valley in Utah is regarded as the super bowl of Freestyle Skiing, attracting big crowds to the sport’s premier date on the competitive calendar.

“The conditions today were ever changing. A bit of rain and a bit of snow but the weather cleared and the course was awesome by the super final,” Anthony said. “Today I did nothing different to what I’ve been training, just got it together better which I haven’t done previously this season.”

“Now it’s recovery, get ready to go again tomorrow and back it up,” Anthony said of the second World Cup tomorrow.  
Anthony edged out team mate Britt Cox, the current Number 1 going into Deer Valley, relegating her to seventh place in the small final and therefore, not able to advance to the medal round.  

Cox had put down a quality run in the small final without too many mistakes but perhaps lacking a bit of flair on this occasion. The emerging US women, Kauf, Schild and McCargo, threw down the gauntlet with fast, technically strong runs finishing second, third and fourth behind winner Perrine Laffont from France.  

20-year-old Queenslander Sophie Ash, who is in her debut World Cup season, stepped up again making her second small final this week, having qualified in Calgary last weekend and now in Deer Valley. Ash came in 13th in qualifying, scoring 72.04 and again 13th in the small final with an imporved 74.16 points.

Matt Graham made a herculean effort to qualify fifth (in a field of 62 men) and make the top 16 after suffering from a bout of gastroenteritis last night, which saw him admitted to hospital for three hours for an intravenous drip.

Despite being unwell, Graham made it to 13th in the small final after having trouble with the landing on his bottom jump – a D-Spin 1080 - and will hopefully regain some strength before tomorrow’s second World Cup.

Other Australian results for the women were Taylah O’Neill in 18th with a very strong performance, Madii Himbury 32nd, Krystle Yin 37th and Claudia Gueli 42nd.

Men’s results include Rohan Chapman-Davies 32nd, James Matheson 37th and Cooper Woords-Topalovic 54th.
The action starts again tomorrow in Deer Valley for the second World Cup starting with Women’s qualifying at 8.10am (AEDT). Finals can watched LIVE on Eurosport Australia  

Follow OWIA on twitter HERE and check out the OWIA  website and pyeongchang2018.olympics.com.au for all the updates.
 
Belinda Noonan
OWIA

Gold for Britt Cox and bronze for Matt Graham provided Australia with two appearances on the podium on Saturday following the first Moguls World Cup of the year in Calgary, Canada.
 
It’s the second time in less than 12-months that Cox has won gold at Calgary and the World Champion said that she was absolutely “stoked” to be back doing what she loves, especially now that she’s back in the yellow bib and leading the pack.
 
“So happy with today, I just feel so lucky to be doing what I love every single day and to finish today in Calgary on top of the podium feels even better,” she said.
 
“It feels great to start the first World Cup of the year with a gold and I just want to keep the momentum moving and progressing my skiing week-to week.”
 
The 23-year-old added that she was “happy to come out here and turn things around in Calgary” after some mistakes  at the last Moguls World Cup in Thaiwoo China during December.
 
Fellow Aussie and Sochi Olympian Matt Graham claimed bronze after a fantastic run in the men’s Super Final, finishing alongside Canadian Mikael Kingsbury who won gold and Dimitry Reikherd from Kazakhstan in second place.
 
“Definitely came here pretty hungry coming off two podiums in China, I was keen to get up there again,” he said.
 
“After having a successful year last year, it was definitely motivating to come back and do well again. Overall I was pretty happy with my two final runs, I just made small mistakes and my bottom air and location sof the landings were slightly off which I think cost me a higher step on the podium.
 
“I think I had some good energy today and harnessed a good mental state … [I’m] stoked to come away with a podium and for Britty to get up there on the top step where she belongs was pretty awesome.”

Graham’s fellow Aussies weren’t able to make it to the 16-man final, with James Matheson finishing 24th, Rohan Chapman-Davies 30th  and rookie Cooper Woods-Topalovic 39th.
 
Cox however was joined in the first final of the day by Claudia Gueli and Sophie Ash who both finished in the top 15. Both skied to career best restuls, Gueli finished 10th while Ash was 14th.
 
The next destination for the Aussie mogul skiers is Deer Valley, USA, with the next World Cup kicking off this Wednesday.
 
“We have a really quick turnaround this week, but I love Deer Valley,” Cox said.
 
“I love the course and we also have a lot of Aussies coming there to support us including my mum, dad and brother so really excited to see them and to get back on Champion Course.”
 
“We trained hard in the offseason, put in a lot of work,” added Graham.
 
“As long as my bags arrive I’ll be fine!”


David Barden
​OWIA

Four months ago, Sochi Olympian Brodie Summers was hoping the routine training jump that ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament could be rehabbed with enough time to make his second Olympic appearance next month in PyeongChang.

The answer is in.

As the rest of the OWIA and NSWIS mogul skiing squad compete in the fourth World Cup in Calgary this weekend, Summers is winging his way to Winter Park in Colorado, USA to train with Australia’s Nor Am skiers from the Mogul Skiing Academy as his next preparatory step before a full return.  

“Our Nor Am skiers have kindly said that they’re happy for me to join them,” Summers said before left his Melbourne home today.

The relentless, positive way in which Summers has tackled and condensed a twelve-month rehab with his trainers and medical professionals is remarkable, but as he well knows, the ultimate test is yet to come.

In September  Summers said that it was "quite the mogul I have deal with" after surgery to his torn ACL and that he was motivated "to give it every bit I've got to get the job done".

Summers has done exactly what he set out to do and is now headed for a return to groomed snow and the mogul course - one bump at a time.

 “This is the time where I work myself back into a moguls course.," he says of the coming weeks in Colorado. "The first few days will be cruising around on groomed snow and then step by step back into moguls course until hopefully I can put all the pieces back together for the pre-Olympic training camp in Steamboat from January 21.”

“I’m excited, really pumped up to get back into the season. Things have revved up the last couple of weeks and I feel more like a elite athlete again.”

Has he missed team mates Matt Graham, Britt Cox and the NSWIS mogul skiers in the early part of the season?

Maybe, but as with the common, positive vibe that runs like water through the Australian mogul teams, he feels connected and now, ready.

“It will be fun to be back in the team. The good thing with social media is that I can feel part of it,” he says.

Feeling “more like an elite athlete again” is the only admission the 24-year-old will entertain about the physical and mental mountains he has climbed since the simple training jump went wrong on September 5 at Mt Buller.

Within a few days of rupturing his ACL, surgeons took a graft from his hamstring tendon to replace it.

The work began on intensive rehab, led by OWIA’s Ashley Merkur.  Summers was back in the gym a week later up to six times a week, a couple of times a day.  

By December, Summers was in Japan to tackle snow.

“Japan was first time back on snow, having the sensation of gliding again and feeling comfortable in the ski boots. After the first couple of runs doing that, we started doing some drills and fundamentals. Putting the knee under those kinds of loads.”  

Talk to any internationally successful mogul skier and you will hear about the importance of the basics. The rehab training stint in Japan reinforced those basics and tested the knee.
 
“Fundamentals for mogul skiers are essential,” Summers says. “We wanted to exercise as much control as possible with the edge of the ski and forward pressure – and good weight distribution and a nice body position.”

“I was after very consistent turn shape and control, and also symmetry to make sure it was even given what my right knee went through, that it could handle the loads.”

“It’s good to have the opportunity to do that.”

The next step before leaving for Colorado this weekend was a ten-day water jumping camp in rural Victoria, which has bolstered his confidence.

“The water ramping went really well actually,” he said. “I had my last session this morning and speaking to Ash (Merkur) on the way back about the difference between day 1 and today. It (the water ramping) gave me confidence in my body.”

Summers is now a dark horse for PyeongChang. His international record last season where he finished eighth in the world and collected two World Cup podiums puts him in the mix.

He has the experience and the mind-set that has been honed from a desire for the sport when he began competing in the Victorian inter-schools program.

“My friend was part of Team Buller Riders and convinced my parents to drive up every weekend during Term 3 back in 2006 and 2007.”

Summers showed such promise and love for his sport that in the following two years he went to school in Mt Buller.

“My parents bought an apartment up there and Mum came up. My dad and (older) siblings would come up on the weekend. I got very obsessed from the moment I did it and was quite late into the sport as a 13-year-old compared to others.”   

By 2010, Summers was part of the NSWIS mogul squad and came into the OWIA mogul skiing program in 2013 before the Sochi Olympics, where he finished 13th.

PyeongChang will be his return to competition. That's about as tight as it gets.

By Belinda Noonan
OWIA
 
 
 

Australia’s top mogul skiers have touched down in Calgary, Canada ahead of their third World Cup of the season.
 
Following a well-deserved break after competing in China just before Christmas, the Aussies
jumped straight back into their preparations as the PyeongChang Winter Games edge closer.
 
“The team spent the break period in Winter Park, Colorado in camp recovering, strength and conditioning on snow for four days,” coach Steve Desovich said.
 
Matt Graham heads into the third World Cup of the season after back-to-back podium finishes at China’s Thaiwoo Ski resort, claiming silver on Day 1 and taking bronze just 24 hours later.
 
After a bumpy start to the season for Australia’s male mogul skiers in Ruka, Finland, the 23-year-old previously said that he was “really happy” with the way he had bounced back.
 
NSWIS athletes Rohan Chapman-Davies and James Matheson also made impressive comebacks in Thaiwoo after failing to make it past qualifications at the season opener.
 
Matheson finished in the top 10 taking 7th place in a big personal best on Day 1, while Chapman-Davies was also a PB in 13th and rookie Cooper Woods-Topalovic finished inside the top 30 for the first time.
 
The second day of competition also saw 2017 World Champion and Crystal Globe winner Britt Cox deliver a solid performance placing fourth after an uncharacteristic mistake on Day 1 prevented her from progressing to the finals.
 
“While the initial recovery period was quite strenuous Britt and Matt have managed to get up to par mid-way through,” Desovich said.
 
“As we arrive now into Calgary we will have two days of training on a very challenging course with women’s qualifications taking place on January 5th and the finals for both men and women on January 6th.”
 
The third FIS Moguls World Cup will be held in Calgary, Canada on 6 January. You can keep up-to-date with the results HERE or follow OWIA on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE for live reporting from the event.
 
David Barden
OWIA