Australia’s mogul skiing squad had a solid day at the Calgary World Cup in Canada, with four athletes qualifying for finals.

The leading performance came from AIS / NSWIS athlete Britt Cox, who placed seventh, narrowly missing the top six super final.

Her seventh place result means that Cox maintains her world ranking of four.

Fellow AIS / NSWIS athlete Nicole Parks had the best day of her career, recording a personal best 11th place finish and has lifted her ranking from 30 after the first World Cup of the season to currently sit in 20th spot.

In the men's event, AIS / NSWIS athlete Dale Begg-Smith was the best placed of the Australians finishing 12th, with Matt Graham, another AIS / NSWIS scholarship holder, was 13th. The two had exactly the same score, but were separated on a countback.

The women's World Cup was won by Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe, with American Hannah Kearney second and another Canadian Chloe Dufour-Lapointe in third.

Canadian Mikael Kingsbury took the win from compatriot Alex Bilodeau and American Patrick Deneen in third.

Other Australian results in the 1988 Olympic Winter Games host city, held in minus 18 degrees Celsius, saw NSWIS skier Taylah-Paige O’Neill finish 22nd and AIS / NSWIS athletes Brodie Summers 29th and Sam Hall 40th.

AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovich was impressed by the speed down the steep challenging course by Cox.

Cox is benefitting from working tirelessly on strength and conditioning during the off season and in the event she was the second fastest woman on the course.

“It was a slightly above average day but we’ll definitely have to build on it,” Desovich said.

“Britt had a very good run in the first final and actually I was pretty impressed with the run.

“Her speed was very encouraging.”

Australia’s seven member mogul skiing squad will compete in a World Cup in Calgary, Canada, on Sunday (Australian time).

Teenage Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athletes Britt Cox and Matt Graham go into the event after finishing fourth in the first event of the season in Ruka, Finland, in December.

However, Cox and Graham will not be the only points of interest in the Aussie squad.

Australia’s most successful winter Olympian, Dale Begg-Smith, is competing for only the second time since 2010.

Begg-Smith demonstrated his enormous talent in Ruka by finishing in fifth, which was highly impressive given his lengthy absence from competition.

Fellow AIS / NSWIS athletes Nicole Parks, Brodie Summers, Sam Hall and NSWIS skier Taylah O’Neill are all approaching the busy competition schedule, five World Cup events in 16 days, with a high level of confidence.

The squad has been training at the Colorado resort of Steamboat in the United States since competing in Finland.

The AIS Mogul Skiing program undertook a wide range of activities during July to October covering strength and conditioning, water jumping, on snow training and altitude camps.

Matt Graham, Sam Hall, Brodie Summers and Britt Cox took part in water ramp camps in Park City, UT, USA, with AIS Mogul Aerial Coach Jerry Grossi. The camps were very successful with noticeable gains for many of the athletes in their degree of difficulty and jump execution.

After the Park City camp, training took place on the world class Toppa’s Dream mogul course at Perisher.

The National Mogul Championships took place at Perisher and saw Matt Graham successfully defend his title with two wins in two days of competition. AIS/NSWIS Scholarship holder Sam Hall finished second overall with a sixth and a third through day one and two of competition. In the women’s event Nicole Parks and Britt Cox placed third and fourth respectively, over the two days. In a very promising sign for the future, NSWIS scholarship holder Taylah O’Neill was the best placed Australian finishing second overall.

In a further sign of depth within the Australian team, Olympic hopefuls and AIS/NSWIS scholarship athletes Brodie Summers and Nicole Parks won the James Boag’s ABOM Mogul Challenge at Mt Buller. It was the second ABOM victory of Nicole’s career and the first for Brodie.

An altitude camp was held at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra in September to prepare the athletes for an on snow training camp in Zermatt, Switzerland. The altitude camp at the AIS has proven to be very beneficial, with the athlete’s performing well in training on the Zermatt glacier.

After the Zermatt camp, athletes will take part in another camp at the AIS in Canberra and a water ramp camp during November at the SSA facility in Melbourne. This will be the final training activity in Australia before the team heads to Ruka, Finland, to commence their northern hemisphere winter campaign.

Winter Olympic Games hopefuls Brodie Summers and Nicole Parks scored upset victories in the James Boag’s ABOM Mogul Challenge, the last event of the Suzuki National Snowsport Championships, at Victoria’s Mt Buller today.

Summers and Parks, both Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athletes, turned the tables on the two pre-event favourites, fellow AIS / NSWIS skiers Matt Graham and Britt Cox.

Graham, who has won the last four ABOM events, was chasing a record equalling fifth victory but had to be content with second place ahead of NSWIS athlete Rohan Chapman-Davies in third.

Parks added a second ABOM trophy to a previous win in this event in 2009 with a narrow 13-12 win over second placed NSWIS athlete Madii Himbury.

While in many ways it was a surprise that Cox, with two World Cup podium finishes to her name, did not win her fourth consecutive ABOM, it was an even bigger shock that Cox failed to win through to the final.

Cox lost a tight semi-final dual with Himbury, with Cox relegated to third after winning the consolation final.

Summers, who signalled his strong potential with a seventh place in the mogul World Championships earlier this year, said that the win is a direct result of the support provided to him through the Olympic Winter Institute program.

“After I qualified for the national team to work with our coach Steve Desovich, Jerry Grossi and everybody else in the support team, it’s been massive. They have invested a lot into me this year and I have been trying to capitalise on it as much as I can,” Summers said.

“Since I had my best results of seventh in the single moguls and ninth in the duals at the World Championships in Norway, I’ve been training as hard as I can although the job is not done until the Olympics are over.”

Summers admitted that it was difficult lining up against Graham, who is a close friend as well as a fellow AIS / NSWIS athlete sharing the same goals.

“It sucks when you beat your best mate sometimes but you do what you have to do and that is what sport is sometimes,” he said.
Summers admitted that he felt a little more disappointment for Graham given that his mate was trying to win the ABOM for a fifth consecutive year.

“I think that made it a little tougher. I actually apologised to him when we shook hands at the bottom. I felt bad for taking away his record but we all wanted it really bad out here today.

“Winning today is a real confidence boost in the lead up to the Olympics, especially when the win was against somebody like Matt Graham. His turns are in a class of the best in the world.”

Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athlete Sam Hall took another step towards fulfilling his Olympic dream when he finished with a personal best sixth place in the World Freestyle Ski Championships dual moguls event in Voss, Norway.

The 24-year-old Hall won his first dual against Sweden’s Ludvig Fjallstroim, after qualifying in eighth, and advanced to the quarter finals.

Unfortunately for the Australian, he was then drawn against the eventual winner Alex Bilodeau, who brought Hall’s day to an end.

Canadian Mikael Kingsbury, was second and American Patrick Deneen took third place.

However, as the best finishing Australian, coupled with strong performances in the last two weeks, Hall can be highly pleased with the result.

Given that Hall missed last season with a knee injury, he has made significant progress towards living up to the promise he showed several years ago.

It was only a little more than 10 days ago that Hall achieved a then World Cup personal best, an eighth place in Japan, which has now been improved in a field boasting every current top class moguls skier in the world.

Hall was one of four Australian squad members who progressed to the finals.

NSWIS skier Brodie Summers extended his “purple patch” by making the finals with a very strong fourth place, but unlike Hall, he was unable to win his quarter final dual against Fin Jimi Salonen and ended the day in a very impressive ninth place.

In the women’s draw, teenager Britt Cox and fellow AIS / NSWIS scholarship holder Nicole Parks both made the finals to finish in eighth and 16th. Cox won her first dual but went down to the eventual silver medallist Miki Ito in a quarter final.

The women’s event was won by Canadian Chloe Dufour-Lapointe, with American Hannah Kearney in third.

The only member of the Australian squad not to make finals was Matt Graham.

Following an outstanding fourth place in the first of the two moguls events in Voss, Graham made an uncharacteristic mistake going into a jump during the qualification session for finals. The error ended his chances of recording another top finish.

AIS moguls skiing program head coach Steve Desovich labeled the day as “a very solid result and we’d always take a day like today.”

“Sam has worked very hard to get back from injury but I would also like to acknowledge the great work by OWIA/NSWIS sport scientist John Marsden and Coach Peter Topalovic from NSWIS who have worked closely with Sam and have played a huge part in his return.”

With Hall and Summers continuing their northern hemisphere campaign in Sweden and Spain after the World Championships while the other squad members return to Australia to begin their year of preparation for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games in Russia, Desovich is able to reflect very positively on the season.

“This season can be described as very good,” Desovich said.

“The highlights were Britt Cox’s third place in Lake Placid and her fourth in Kreischberg, Austria, along with her 10th place here in the World Championships, and if you combine all of those, that’s a solid performance.

“Also Matt Graham’s seventh place in Sochi and the fourth place here, they’re simply fantastic results as very often the youngest finalist in the men’s competition.”

Eighteen-year-old Australian Matt Graham has achieved the first major milestone in a burgeoning career which has significantly improved since finishing secondary school last year to become a full time skier when he finished fourth with a P.B in the mogul skiing event at the World Freestyle Ski Championships in Voss, Norway.

The Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holder delivered the run of his career, prompting high praise from AIS moguls ski program head coach Steve Desovich, who described Graham’s result as a “landmark performance.”

Graham, one of three Australian men in the top 11 places, and the youngest of the top 18 athletes in the finals, has always believed that with time he can challenge the world’s best and showed why he has held that self-belief.

While Graham held the limelight on a bright day for Australian moguls skiing, 20-year-old NSWIS athlete Brodie Summers, who has competed in only three World Cup events, surprised many by finishing seventh on the world’s second biggest stage.

Summers’ brilliant result eclipsed his best World Cup result of 32nd, which was recorded in January 2011.

AIS / NSWIS skier Sam Hall finished in 11th, after qualifying in sixth place, to become the third Australian man to record an impressive result.

In the women’s draw teenager Britt Cox lived up to expectations with a top 10 place, a career best at World Championships, while fellow AIS / NSW athlete Nicole Parks was 18th, having made the cut in qualifying and in to the finals.

The men’s title was won by Canadian Mikael Kingsbury, who captured his first World Championships crown, ahead of Alex Bilodeau while American Patrick Deneen was third.

American Hannah Kearney won the women’s title, with Japan’s Miki Ito second and Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe third.

After posting results of 27th, 38th and 25th in the first three events of the season, Graham and Desovich devised a simple plan that has blossomed into the teenager’s proudest moment, in the year’s biggest event, which is surpassed in prestige only by the Winter Olympic Games.

Competing in his first full northern hemisphere winter since finishing secondary school last year, Graham realised that an old sporting cliché, of taking it one day at a time, was the key to living up to his potential and kick-starting his promising career.

Desovich said that he is thrilled by Graham’s result and congratulated him on his work ethic and the way he has relentlessly adopted their plan.

“In December he had to dig himself out by the bootstraps,” Desovich said.

“At that point we said to him ‘all you can do is go out and ski the next day and take it one day at a time, one run at a time, one gym session at a time’.

“He was able to claw his way back. He had a 25th, which doesn’t sound like much, but it was a good run. In Calgary he gets a 19th, so he takes another little step. Then in Deer Valley he gets that 10th, in Sochi he gets a 7th and it led all the way to this point.

“He’s slowly gotten himself into a good groove. “

Graham showed right from the start that these Championships would provide the result he was looking for when he recorded a top 10 qualification score, before finishing in sixth place in the first final, largely because of a strong turns score, which was the second best in the high quality field.

Graham’s first final score enabled him to progress to the six-man super final, a career first, guaranteeing him his best ever result even before this stage of the competition started.

He moved to fourth on the final run, a brilliant result for the teenager.

Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport mogul skier Sam Hall has placed the best of the Australian athletes in the dual mogul event in Deer Valley, USA.

Hall’s 18th place was a World Cup career best result for the Perisher based athlete since debuting in February 2009.

He was unlucky not to qualify for the final, missing the 16-man cut by just 0.7 of a point.

Australia's highest ranked mogul skiers, Britteny Cox and Matthew Graham, both 18-years-olds, finished 19th and 23rd respectively.

Cox’s desire to make her fourth final from six starts suffered from a lower than preferred score with turns, however, she can be pleased that her speed down the hill, one of the areas she has been working on this year, was impressive.

Fellow AIS / NSWIS skier Nicole Parks also had a tough day in 34th, while NSWIS athlete Taylah O’Neill did not finish.

Talented Australian teenagers Matt Graham and Britt Cox both recorded top 10 finishes in World Cup mogul skiing at Deer Valley, in the United States.

It was a World Cup personal best for Graham, who is competing in his first full season in the northern hemisphere series, as well as the first time this year that Australia was represented in the men’s and women’s finals at a World Cup level.

Graham’s 10th place in the massive field of 73 competitor saw the Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athlete’s world ranking jump 13 places to 23.

Cox also finished in 10th, her third top 10 after five rounds of competition.

Cox and Graham have the opportunity to back up these results and further build their seasons when they compete in dual moguls at Deer Valley in two days.

Graham finished behind Canadian duo Mikael Kingsbury and Alex Bilodeau in first and second, with American Patrick Deneen taking the other podium placing.

The women’s event was an all American podium finish, with Hannah Kearney, Heather McPhie and Eliza Outrim finishing in first, second and third places.

Cox, ranked 8th in the world, said that her impressive results this season are directly linked to becoming a more consistent skier.

“Today I had a really clean run but I have more in the tank for Saturday and I’m looking for another top 10,” Cox said.

“My skiing across the board is a lot more consistent so I have been able to improve each element of my skiing which has meant that I have been able to get into a few more finals and a few more top 10 finishes.

“This season is going well for me.”

Graham said that finishing 10th has reinforced his belief that he can challenge the world’s best mogul skiers.

“I am really happy with my result today,” he said.

“To achieve better results each week has been one of my main goals this season.

“I’ve been trying to improve all my tricks and I think today’s result showed that.”

“I have thought for a while that I can compete with these guys and today showed it.”

Other Australian results included Nicole Parks, 23rd, Sam Hall 31st, Rohan Chapman-Davies 32nd, James Matheson 34th and Brodie Summers 52nd.

Australian teenager Matt Graham recorded a World Cup season best 19th place in the moguls event in Calgary, Canada.

The result was the Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athlete’s highest World Cup finish since February of last year.

In his first full season of World Cup competition, Graham has shown steady improvement through the four events contested so far, showing signs that his hard work under the guidance of AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovich is starting to repaying him.
Graham’s qualification score of 65.43 meant that he missed the cut for the 16 man final by three places.

Canadian Mikael Kingsbury won, while Russian Alexandr Smyshlyaev was second and Japan’s Sho Endo was third.

In the women’s event, AIS / NSWIS skier Britt Cox retains her place in the world’s top 10 rankings despite ending the day also in 19th and missing the finals for the first time since the season opener on December 15.

Cox, 18, was the highest finishing Australian woman with NSWIS athlete Taylah O’Neill, 18, enjoying her best World Cup result, 21stplace.

AIS / NSWIS skier Nicole Parks came 29th.

The women’s event saw a Canadian one-two with Justine Dufour-Lapointe and sister Chloe Dufour-Lapointe with American Eliza Outtrim in third place.

Eighteen-year-old Australian Britteny Cox scored a podium finish in World Cup moguls skiing in Lake Placid in the United States today.

The third place is the sixth podium finish by Australian skiers and snowboarders since last Saturday, continuing the impressive World Cup results by local athletes.

For Cox, an Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holder, today’s third place is the second time the talented teenager has risen to a World Cup podium.

The event was won by current Winter Olympic Games gold medallist Hannah Kearney from the United States, with the Czech Replublic’s Nikola Sudova, a two-time World Championship place getter, finishing second.

Cox edged out fourth placed athlete, Canadian Chloe Dufour-Lapointe, who finished second in the last World Championships.

The bronze medal result pushes Cox’s ranking to fifth in the world.

After earning a place in the final 12 with the sixth best qualifying score, the tenacity of the hard working Australian kicked into gear, enabling her to put pressure on her more experienced opponents.

She finished in sixth place in the first final, which earned a place in the medal round for the best six athletes of the day.

Cox, who started the season with goals to improve her speed down the hill, enhance jumps and lift her physical conditioning, proved today that her hard work has paid handsome dividends.

AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovich, a career coach with 23 years’ experience, said he has never seen an athlete with a stronger work ethic than Cox.

“I cannot say I know what every athlete does in training but from what I have seen, I have never seen a harder worker, more diligent athlete than Britt,” Desovich said.

He said he was both “thrilled” yet a little surprised that Cox had made it to the podium again at this stage of her career.

“With the things we are working on for the longer term, we didn’t expect Britt to get another podium so quickly,” he admitted.

Desovich paid particular praise to NSW winter sports senior sport scientist John Marsden and AIS mogul and aerial skiing coach Jerry Grossi, who have combined to enable Cox’s work ethic to achieve the significant improvement she has shown since last season.

“The work that John Marsden and Jerry Grossi have done has given Britt even better turns and jumps than last year and will enable her to get the very best out of herself,” Desovich said.

Cox’s fellow AIS / NSWIS athlete Nicole Parks finished in 22nd, one place behind another Aussie, Taylah O’Neill.

In the men’s event AIS / NSW athlete Matt Graham, 18, achieved his best World Cup result of the season when he finished 25th.

Talented Australian teenager Britteny Cox was within a short reach of a podium finish at today’s dual moguls World Cup in Kreischberg and left the Austrian resort with an impressive fourth place.

The fighting performance was the eighteen-year-old Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athlete’s second best result in World Cup competition and elevates her into the top 10 world rankings.

The second round of this season’s World Cup almost looked like it would provide the perfect early Christmas present for the Australian, however, Cox was narrowly out pointed in the consolation final, which decided overall third and fourth places, by world number two, Justine Dufour-Lapointe from Canada.

The final was an all-American dual with Heather McPhie, currently the world’s top ranked moguls skier, who was victorious over Heidi Klosser.

Although Cox was eyeing the second World Cup podium of her career, she goes into the short Christmas break with the knowledge that her performance today had all the hallmarks of a bright season ahead.

Cox improved on the 19th place in Finland a week earlier, by qualifying for the round of 16 in 11th place.

Drawn against world number four Nikola Sudova from the Czech Republic, Cox advanced to the quarters with a tight win.

In the quarters, the Australian’s opponent, Norwegian Hedvig Wessel, was faster down the 212-metre course but the Perisher-based Cox impressed the judges with a better overall run.

Skiing in the semi-final, for a place in the final and a guaranteed gold or silver place, Cox was up against Klosser, number three in the world, but the American had the edge.

The consolation final did not go completely to plan with Cox landing off balance after a 360-degree spin on the first jump.

A few little improvisations momentarily robbed Cox of rhythm, and although Cox clawed back a little of the lost ground, she was unable to make up the difference in points, settling for fourth place.

AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovich is now looking forward to the season’s transition into the seven rounds of singles World Cup moguls events, starting in Lake Placid on January 17, and World Championships in Norway in March.

“It is great to end the pre-Christmas campaign with such a good result,” Desovich said.

“She has worked very hard and we have had particularly good training and we have just been waiting for something good like this to happen.

“Britt skied the middle sections of today’s course in between the jumps nice and fast. Basically she fought and clawed all day.

“It was not as if she skied particularly great or particularly poorly, she just stayed in there and manufactured a good performance.”

Fellow AIS / NSWIS athlete Matt Graham, who has just finished school and is experiencing his first full World Cup season, had a tough day finishing in 38th.

The men’s event was won by American Byron Wilson, with Olympic gold medallist Alex Bilodeau from Canada in second, while World Cup Champion Mikael Kingsbury was third.

The Australians now have a few days off for Christmas before returning to full training in Steamboat Springs in the United States on December 28.

Australian teenagers Matt Graham and Britt Cox continued their domination of the James Boag’s ABOM Mogul Challenge by winning at Victoria’s Mt Buller today.

Graham finished ahead of Korea’s Jae-Woo Choi and Australia’s Brodie Summers while Cox was joined on the podium by fellow Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport skier Nicole Parks and NSWIS athlete Taylah O’Neill.

Graham, the winner of the last three ABOMs and Cox, who won the last two years, went into today’s dual mogul competition, the 24th year of the event, as red-hot favourites and more than lived up to expectation.

By winning her third ABOM, Cox joins another Australian, Maria Despas, as the only women to have won the nation’s longest running mogul ski event on three occasions.

With win number four, only one other male athlete has won the event more times than Graham – Australian Nick Cleaver, who amassed five victories between 1991 and 1995.

The event has become an annual tradition for the 18-year-old AIS / NSWIS athletes who both first entered the ABOM event as 10-year-olds.

Their emerging careers have both followed similar paths since – both were awarded AIS/NSWIS scholarships for the first time in 2010, they made their World Cup debuts in the same year and this season has seen them balancing HSC school studies with continuing their quest to represent Australia at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games.

The win shows that Graham and Cox are maturing as mentally tough athletes, given that they were competing against impressive fields and went into today’s event with significantly less on-snow training this winter.

Both have cut back the amount of on snow training during the Australian winter to spend more time on school studies.

Graham admitted that he has spent about 50 percent less time on snow this winter, compared with previous years, so winning his fourth ABOM has provided additional satisfaction.

“I felt a little bit of pressure today but I made sure that my approach was the same as usual,” Graham said.

“It involves making sure I remain mentally calm, putting down a solid run and don’t overdo it.

”Winning today was very satisfying as the ABOM is a special event for everybody who competes in it.”

Cox, a World Cup medalist in the USA last February, said that the win was the perfect way to bounce back from a fourth and sixth place at last month’s National Championships in Perisher.

“I’m so excited and really pleased to win today,” Cox said.

She added that the win shows the specific training direction Cox has taken this winter is paying dividends, particularly with newly found speed, resulting from a great deal of strength work in the gym and a more aggressive approach to competition.

Promising teenager Matt Graham had his moment in the spotlight just before the World Cup season ended for the AIS mogul skiing program.

Competing in the World Cup dual moguls event at the American resort of Deer Valley today, Graham qualified for the finals in 17th place, won his dual in the first elimination round against Finland's Jussi Penttala before going down in the second final to current Olympic gold medalist Canadian Alexandre Bilodeau.

Graham’s 14th overall place was a personal best in World Cup competition and provided the perfect way to end his season, which started last November.

The result will also provide the perfect motivation for the Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport, Perisher-based athlete to capitalise on a tough off season training campaign in Australia, due to start after the team enjoys a brief break.

The event was won by Russian Sergey Volkov, Canadian Mikael Kingsbury finished second and third went to Russia’s Andrey Volkov.

In the women’s event, 17-year-old, Britt Cox, added an 11th place to her outstanding season, which reached its peak 48 hours ago when she claimed her first World Cup medal by finishing the individual moguls event, also at Deer Valley, in third place.

Cox qualified very strongly in sixth place with another excellent performance today but unfortunately the AIS/NSWIS athlete’s event finished in the first final when she made a mistake and fell before the top jump against American KC Oakley.

The event was won by the Olympic Champion American Hannah Kearney, with Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe in second place while American Heather McPhie finished third.

AIS mogul skiing head coach Steve Desovich has already started the season evaluation and not surprisingly has been very happy with the improvement made by Cox this season. However, he is quick to add that he is hopeful the teenager has much bigger achievements ahead.

He cites Cox’s enormous improvement with jumps and significant gains with speed as the two factors which have brought about her rise up the world rankings this season.

“For Britt until Friday the season was good, but with that podium her season is excellent,” Desovich said.

“There is no way we could have forecasted that she would be on the podium this year. What she did the other night was really great and completely unexpected.

“So for her, it has been an excellent campaign.”

Desovich is also pleased with the progress made by Graham and regards this season’s performances as very encouraging.

“Matt did well today. He qualified 16th, won his first dual run and finish in 14th position, which is a great way to end the season,” Desovich said.

“We are pleased with Matt. To see him do well today is a good result for him and hopefully this helps him to get going for the future.”

“Nineteen year old Nicole Parks finished in 22nd place in the dual mogul event but has also made significant progress during the last four weeks of World Cup competition.

“Nicole also has had some very bright moments over the past weeks. On Thursday night the 13th place was a huge step forward. Making two finals from four events is a big change this year in the right direction. With more work on her jumps Nicole will come prepared for next season, with a strong chance to really succeed at the World Cup level.” Desovich said.

In other results with Australians competing in the Deer Valley moguls, NSWIS athlete Taylah O’Neill, competing in her second World Cup event of the season, placed 29th.

Teenager Brittney Cox has won Australia’s first women’s World Cup moguls medal by placing third in the single moguls event in Deer Valley, USA.

Although the 2010 Olympian is still only 17, Cox produced a series of brilliant runs in front of a large crowd to finish the night event with the bronze medal, behind Americans Hannah Kearney, who completed her 13th straight World Cup victory, and Heather McPhie.

The Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holder becomes only the second Australian woman to medal in World Cup or World Championship moguls competition. Maria Despas took silver at the 2001 World Championships.

Cox, who is having her best season in her short career, is now ranked 14th in the world after the Deer Valley result. She was not expecting a podium finish this season although many involved with international moguls skiing have predicted a bright future for the Perisher-based athlete.

“I’m so excited, a thrilled Cox said.

“I had no idea I would be able to achieve a World Cup podium this year.

“I had a super-awesome day today. I felt I was in the right frame of mind in the start gate, ready to go, and I executed the things I have been working on in training for the last few days.

“I also skied fast which is something I have been working on the last few weeks.”

Most of Cox’s significant improvement this season has come directly from her relentless work ethic and the huge commitment she has made to training under the watchful eye of AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovich, AIS Mogul jump coach Steve Desovich and NSWIS winter sports scientist John Marsden.

“I have been involved in a lot of sports since a really young age and I have learned that hard work pays off,” Cox said.

“I know that if I try my hardest then I can do the best I can possibly do. Each time I train I try my hardest and always try to do better than the run before. I think hard work is the key and that is what is helping me.”

“I have been concentrating on getting PBs and focusing on my skiing, and to find out that I am the first Australian woman to win a World Cup moguls medal is such a bonus and so exciting.

“This is a big boost for my confidence and now I know what I am capable of and I just want to set the bar higher to strive for more PBs and do better in the future.

“I want to keep working on my speed and aggression and skiing more on intuition and feel, being in the moment when I ski so I can react to different scenarios and situations.

“My goal is to be the best mogule skier that I can become and if that means a medal at the Olympics, that would be great, but I am always going to focus on achieving the best results that I am capable of achieving.”

Cox’s bronze medal, along with encouraging personal best results by fellow teenager Nicole Parks, who finished 13th and qualified for her second straight final, and seventeen-year-old Taylah- O’Neill, who finished 24th in her first world cup event, gave Australia a day described by Olympic Winter Institute CEO Geoff Lipshut as one of the best day in Australian women’s moguls skiing history.

“Today shows that Australian women’s moguls skiing has a very bright future,” Lipshut said

In the men's event AIS Mogul Skier Matt Graham unfortunately made a mistake before the jump on the middle section finishing in 44th place.

Nineteen-year-old Australian moguls skier Nicole Parks scored her best World Cup result and first finals appearance in Calgary, Canada, today.

The Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athlete finished 15th, after qualifying for the final in 16th place.

The fifth round of the World Cup was won by American Hannah Kearney, who is unbeaten in five World Cup appearances this season and has a vice-grip on the title. Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe was second while USA’s KC Oakley was third.

With the World Cup season drawing to a close, Parks has emerged as an athlete with real potential, having finished in the top 20 in each of her events this season, and was unlucky not to have been in several finals before today.

AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovich said that he was pleased with the performances of Parks and teenage teammates Britt Cox and Matt Graham, who both finished 20th today, which was a personal best for Graham. .

“We know what each athlete needs to work on to take the next step but this year has been very encouraging,” Desovich said.

“Today I was really pleased for Nicole because she has gone close to making the finals several times this year.”

The AIS program now head to Deer Valley, UT, USA, site of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games to compete in the final North American World Cup of the season.

Teenager Britt Cox took another significant step towards becoming a world class moguls skier when she achieved another personal best in Mont Gabriel, Canada.

Competing in the dual moguls event at Mont Gabriel, the 17-year-old Perisher skier recorded her career best qualifying and overall results in World Cup competition.

The Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holder finished in 12th place overall after qualifying ninth.

It was only a month ago in the first World Cup moguls event of the season in Ruka, Finland, that Cox showed just how much she has improved in the last six months by taking 14th place, which was, at that time, her personal best.

Immediately after Ruka she won two International Ski Federation events in the USA and finished third in another.

Today’s event in -18 degrees centigrade was won by American Olympic gold medalist Hannah Kearney, her third World Cup victory this season, followed by Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Russian Ekaterina Stolyarova in third.

AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovic said that Cox has worked tirelessly on two areas – jumps and speed.

“She has been in two World Cup events so far this season and she has been in the finals of both, which is a very solid performance,” Desovic said.

“She is showing constant improvement. She is fantastic and I have never met anyone like her. She has done a really great job. We are thrilled with her work ethic.”

In addition to Cox’s relentless determination to reach the top, Desovich praised the contributions made by AIS mogul and aerial coach Jerry Grossi and NSWIS winter sports senior sport scientist John Marsden who have worked with Cox to provide changes to her jumping strength and technique as well as her speed down the mountain.

Fellow AIS / NSWIS athlete, 17-year-old Matt Graham skied impressively to record a creditable 23rd in qualifying at Mont Gabriel but it was not enough to make the finals, while Nicole Parks finished her qualifying run in 17th place, matching her previous personal best result from last season missing out by just one place on the dual mogul final.

The moguls team heads to Lake Placid in the United States on January 19 to compete in the next round of the World Cup circuit.

AIS/NSWIS Mogul Skier Britt Cox has built on her finals performance at the opening World Cup of the year to take out victory on day one at the US Selection event in Steamboat, Colorado, USA.

The US Selection events feature strong development level skiers from the USA, who are all competing for a start in the US World Cups. A number of international athletes also compete in the event as it serves as a high quality event early in the international season.

Cox had an outstanding day, qualifying in first place for the final and was able to replicate another leading score to take victory.

Joining Britt in the women's final was AIS/NSWIS team-mate Nicole Parks, who made the final in her first event of the season. Nicole showed some promising pieces in her run and as the season develops will have the opportunity to put the whole run together.

AIS Mogul Skiing Coach Steve Desovich was pleased with the winning performance of his young athlete.

"Britt skied consistently today and continued with her fine jumping and overall skiing."

"We are especially pleased she executed two consecutive runs at close to her current capacity."

Matt Graham also performed very well, narrowly missing out on the podium in fifth place.

Coach Desovich was also happy with Matt's performance, where a slightly different race strategy, being slightly more conservative was employed.

"Matt was able to achieve some key objectives in today’s event. We look forward to continuing the process of trying to achieve consistent performances throughout the season."

Two more events are scheduled to take place in Steamboat, another moguls event on December 21 and a dual mogul event on December 22.

Australian teenager Britt Cox delivered a career best performance while making her first World Cup moguls skiing singles final in Ruka, Finland.

In the opening event to the 2011/2012 freestyle World Cup season, which heralded the introduction of a new points format with qualifying and finals, the tenacious 17-year-old finished 14th in a quality field of 33 women.

The event was won by America’s current Olympic gold medalist and former world champion Hannah Kearney, who backed up her win in the season opener in Ruka last year, ahead of compatriot Eliza Outtrim and Czech veteran Nikola Sudova.

Giving away valuable international experience and physical development to almost the entire field in the final, Cox, who is in the second year of her Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport scholarship, delivered a resounding performance with her jumps but with a speed of 27.04 seconds down the infamous 213-metre Battery Run, she was unable to finish higher in the results.

With Kearney’s time of 24.70 second and a course pace time of 25.97 seconds, Cox and AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovich know exactly what two things the teenager from Victoria’s Mount Beauty needs to work on to take her career to its potential.

“As a coach you always push harder and harder for more but the fact that she made the final for the first time meant that her performance was a solid grade today,” a pleased Desovich said.
“There are ongoing issues to work on to be a top 10. She has a way to go with speed but as she gets older she will get stronger.”

The need for speed is also immediately acknowledged by Cox and in fact she threw caution to the wind at some stages in Ruka but this was at a cost of technical efficiency.

In the men’s event, another Australian teenager, Matt Graham missed the final but finished in 26th place in a field of 51 athletes. This was also a personal best World Cup performance for Matt, improving on his World Cup debut result of 27th in 2010.

Canadian Mikael Kingsbury was victorious, ahead of American Sho Kashima and Frenchman Anthony Benna.

Desovich said that he was pleased with Graham’s qualifying run and like Cox, he needs to work on speed.

Graham pushed hard throughout his qualifying run but his lack of World Cup experience resulted in a mistake which saw the 17-year-old from Gosford in NSW, miss a jump and lose any hope of making the final.

The moguls team now heads to Steamboat, Colorado, USA, for the US Selection Events, with the team rejoining the World Cup circuit in January.

The opening FIS World Cup Mogul Skiing event takes place this weekend in Ruka, Finland.

The event will be contested by emerging AIS Mogul Skiing athletes Britt Cox and Matt Graham, who will be competing in their first ever World Cup events outside of North America.

Both Cox and Graham will have benefitted from plenty of runs on the Ruka course, having been based at the resort since mid-November for their first on snow training camp of the northern hemisphere winter.

AIS Mogul Skiing Head Coach Steve Desovich has been pleased with both of his young athlete’s work ethic in Ruka, which is renowned for its tough training environment being in the Arctic Circle, with cold temperatures and only a few hours of sunlight per day at this time of year.

“Both Britt and Matt have applied themselves exceptionally well in Ruka, which can be very tough on young athletes.”

“The course has been difficult with icy conditions making training challenging.”

“The first event will be tough for both athletes, but we hope the early season training will give them a great platform for the North American World Cups in January and February.”

The event will take place late on Saturday night on the 10th of December Australian time.

Sixteen-year-old Australian Matt Graham scored an upset win over current Olympic gold medalist and world champion, Alexandre Bilodeau, in the James Boag's ABOM dual moguls competition at Victoria's Mount Buller today.

And the female member of the Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport moguls team also shared the glory with 16-year-old sensation Britt Cox winning her event.

But due to the credentials of Bilodeau, the day belonged to Graham, a secondary school student from Gosford, located on NSW's Central Coast, about 76 kilometres north of Sydney.

Bilodeau, 23, won the dual moguls at the world championships in 2011 and 2009 and the moguls Olympic gold medal last year in Vancouver.

Today's third and fourth places went to Korea's Jae-Woo Choi and Australia's Hugh Norton, who skied off in the small final.

Graham's 13 to 12 points win completes a hat-trick in the annual Mt Buller classic, an event that the Australian has "owned" since his first victory in the competition as a 14-year-old.

Despite the importance of the win, the AIS / NSWIS athlete chose to "keep a lid on things."

"The win kind of makes me feel pretty good," Graham said.

Graham conceded that today's win "was a little more special" than his victory in the Suzuki National Moguls Championships at NSW's Perisher resort last weekend.

AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovich was also relatively low key, describing the win as a "positive result and well earned" but stressed that both he and Graham need to keep the victory in perspective for the future.

"We know that Matt is going to have his work cut out in World Cup this year as there are probably 20 or 25 guys with his ability," Desovich said.

"Today was a good result but we must now keep our focus on making solid progress at the World Cup level over the next years in the lead up to Sochi 2014."

Cox's win gave her back-to-back ABOM victories, which was achieved in convincing style over compatriots Taylah O'Neill, Nicole Parks and Pip Sparrow in fourth place.

Cox, who finished second in the first of two competitions at Perisher last weekend, enjoyed the benefits of months of hard training focused on achieving bigger jumps and speed.

"I skied much better today as a result of being faster and more direct, with bigger jumps," Cox said.

Australian 16-year-old Matt Graham captured his maiden victory in open competition when he won a drama packed second event in the Suzuki National Moguls Championships at NSW's Perisher resort today.

The Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athlete turned the tables on his more experienced rival, Russia's Alexander Smyshyaev.

The Australian teenager and the Russian waged a two day duel during these championships with Alexander Smyshyaev edging out Graham by 0.95 of a point in the first event on Friday, but Graham finished ahead by 0.1 of a point in their return stouch today.

An elated Graham, who was runner up in last year's event, said that he knew he could put pressure on the Russian, and was buoyed by the slender margin in yesterday's competition.

"I knew I had to put a clean run down in the qualification round and then step up the pressure in the final," Graham said.

"I am wrapped to win today."

Another Russian, Sergey Volkov, took out third place.

Graham's win over the Russian was a surprise to many, given the experience of Smyshyaev.

However, it was Graham who held his poise and composure when the competition developed in to a gripping final.

The teenager set up his win in the turns, earning 0.9 of a point more than the Russian.

Smyshyaev was more impressive in the air and received slightly more points in speed down the 254-metre course, which was bathed in magnificent sunny conditions.

To add to Australia's successes, NSW Institute of Sport's 19-year-old Nicole Parks also celebrated victory, with a win over Japan's Miki Ito and third placed Russian Regina Rakhimora.

Parks, a NSWIS team member for seven years, said she was as surprised as anybody by her win in a battle that was as tight as the men's final.

"I didn't ski well yesterday and today was all about a different mindset," Parks said.

"I approached today with a far more positive frame of mind and it really paid off."

Parks is hoping that today marks the start of her claim for team selection at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, in Russia.

Australian teenagers Brit Cox and Matt Graham fell agonisingly short of victory in the opening event of the Suzuki National Moguls Championships at NSW's Perisher resort yesterday.

Skiing in challenging conditions, Cox was a mere 0.06 points behind the winner while Graham fell short by just 0.95 points.

The women's event was won by Japan's Arisa Murato, with compatriot Miki Ito occupying the other podium position.

The men's moguls competition was won by Russian Alexander Smyshyaev ahead of teammate Denis Dolgodvorov in third.

The women's event was a close fought affair with the three top finishers scoring 18.54, 18.48 and 17.68 points, in a three way battle for victory.

Although Cox wanted the win, she is particularly pleased with the way she skied.

The Australian Institute of Sport/NSW Institute of Sport athlete was the benchmark with her turns, with a point advantage over Murato, and went close to earning the judges' top marks with jumps.

However, the difference between winning and coming second was Murato's speed down the mountain, which has become the hallmark of the Japanese team.

Snow speed has been a focal point for Cox's on-going development and she has been working hard with AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovich.

"Considering the conditions, there was an improvement but hopefully I can go a bit bigger again and faster in the second competition," Cox said.

"I have a few things I want to work on but overall I was pretty pleased with the way I skied."

Fellow AIS/NSWIS skier Graham was close to Smyshyaev with speed, the Australian matched the Russian with jumps points but was unable to match the winner with turns.

NSWIS athletes David Graham and Sam Hall were also impressive, finishing in fifth and sixth places, a strong result given the quality of the 49 men competing from Australia and overseas.

Teen sensations Britt Cox and Matt Graham defended their junior national mogul championship titles at Mt Buller over the weekend.

Cox, who finished 12th in this year's World Championships at Deer Valley in the USA in February, delivered a solid victory over NSWIS scholarship skiers, second place getter Taylah O'Neill, and 2009 Junior Champion Nicole Parks, in third spot.

The 16-year-old AIS/NSWIS athlete blasted down the 170-metre Chamois run, 1.23 points ahead of her O'Neill, with Parks a further 0.3 points down the results list.

Graham, also 16-years-old, had to fight much harder in his event to fend off another pair of NSWIS skiers Brodie Summers and James Matheson, who achieved his best ever finish in the junior titles by finishing in third place.

Australian Institute of Sport Head Moguls Coach, Steve Desovich, was impressed by a number of athletes competing today but paid special tribute to Cox and Graham, stating that both have achieved noticeable improvements with specific goals.

Cox, one of the hardest working athletes in Australia's AIS scholarship program, showed during last season's World Cup season that she needed to work on speed and jumping height to take the next step in her blossoming career.

Much to Desovich's admiration, Cox has made significant improvement, particularly with her speed, but hastens to add that the real extent of her development will not be known until she competes against international competitors, at Perisher on August 19.

Desovich uses a distance per second formula to quantify speed on a mogul course. During the last northern hemisphere season, Cox was eight seconds over the formula's "par" figure but today she was just 2.2 seconds slower than the ideal speed.

Much of the improvement has come from an arduous weights program and in-depth analysis of her technique.

Desovich praised the NSW Institute of Sport sports scientist John Marsden who has worked tirelessly with Cox to enhance her leg absorption technique through moguls.

Desovich was impressed by Graham's fighting spirit today, given that he still won after making several errors during the middle section of his run.

Desovich said he thought Graham secured today's title from his strength in the air, particularly in the final, but has challenged the Perisher skier to achieve further improvement with his turns.

"We are particularly happy to invest a lot of time and energy in Britt and Matt and we are very pleased with what we're seeing," Desovich said.

He admits that it is still too early to predict how the recent improvements made by Cox and Graham will stand up in World Cup competition but added that at just 16-years of age they hold a great deal of hope.

And the pressure that both athletes were under today, going into the event as white hot favourites to win, was another challenge Cox and Graham conquered.

The boys' Youth title was won by local club skier Max Bernard from Team Buller Riders followed by Peter Miliken from the Perisher Winter Sports Club in second and third place going to Matt Anthony also from Team Buller Riders.

The girls' event was won convincingly by Jakara Anthony, ahead of Eliza Honan both from Team Buller Riders and Krystal Yin form Perisher in third.

Cox and Graham along with a field of 100 of Australia's best junior mogul skiers were disappointed when the dual mogul event was cancelled due to poor visibility on Sunday morning.

Vancouver Olympian Britteny Cox has made the podium in successive events at the Australian National mogul skiing championships in Perisher .

Cox claimed the bronze medal in the series opener on the Toppa's Dream course, then backed up with silver in the second event.

Fellow NSWIS skier Nicole Parks was the other Australian woman in the medals, taking bronze in the second event.

Matt Graham was the best of the Aussie men, winning the qualifying round for the first event before skiing to silver in the final.

Rohan Chapman-Davies also flew the flag for the Aussie men, collecting bronze in the second round of the championships.

Japanese skiers dominated the men's, Sho Endo winning the first round with 23.75 points, ahead of Graham on 23.69.

His compatriot Nobuyuki Nishi won the second gold on offer, skiing to 24.27 points to oust US skier Reed Snyderman on 23.96. Chapman-Davies gained his bronze with 22.83 points.

US women took the two gold medals, Whitney Henceroth in the first round and Brittany Loweree in the second.

Young guns Matthew Graham and Britteny Cox have reaffirmed their status as two of the most outstanding junior mogul skiing prospects in the world, taking out the 2010 Junior National Mogul Championships at Mt Buller under snowy skies. A strong field featuring more than 100 athletes from across Australia took part in the event on a great early season course given the limited natural snowfalls leading into the event. The large field size showcased the popularity of mogul skiing in Australia, but in the end the story of the day was the two 15-year-olds, Cox and Graham, who impressed the most.

For Cox, the event marked a return to competition after the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. She was sitting in second place behind New South Wales Institute of Sport team-mate Nicole Parks after qualifying, but stepped it up in the final to take home the gold. Graham was the dominant male athlete over the weekend, leading the event in qualifying and improving his score in the final to record a comfortable victory margin of two points.

Mt Buller skiers had great success in the youth (13 and under) event, taking out four of the six medals available.

The next mogul event at Mt Buller will be the Victorian Interschools followed by the 22nd running of the ABOM Mogul Challenge.

Results

Junior Men
1st - Matt Graham (Perisher/NSWIS)
2nd - Rohan Chapman-Davies (Perisher/NSWIS)
3rd - Brodie Summers (Mt Buller/NSWIS)

Junior Women
1st - Britteny Cox (Falls Creek/NSWIS)
2nd - Nicole Parks (Perisher/NSWIS)
3rd -Roanna Chapman-Davies (Perisher/NSWIS)

Youth Men
1st - Charlie Comben (Mt Buller/Full Attack)
2nd -Jackson Comben (Mt Buller/TBR)
3rd -Peter Miliken (Perisher)

Youth Women
1st -Eliza Honan (Mt Buller/Full Attack)
2nd - Claudia Gueli (Mt Buller/TBR)
3rd - Juliana Nix (Perisher)