Australia’s female wintersport athletes have made it a four medal weekend to open the World Cup season, with aerial skier Danielle Scott claiming a silver medal in Ruka, Finland, and snowboard cross rider Belle Brockhoff finishing with a bronze in Les Deux Alpes, France, overnight.

Earlier in the weekend mogul skier Jakara Anthony took gold in Ruka and Tess Coady silver in the snowboard big air in Beijing, China.

In the French Alps Belle Brockhoff had her first podium result in almost two years, with a bronze medal performance at the snowboard cross World Cup in Les Deux Alpes.

Brockhoff qualified for finals in third place, and won her quarter-final round to advance to the semi-final, where she was matched up against teammate Josie Baff. In the semi-final, Brockhoff again was the first across the line with Baff just missing out on advancing to the big final and medal round in third place.

In the final Brockhoff made a good start, but was unable to pass Chloe Trespeuch of France who took the win. Italian rider and 2018 Olympic Champion Michela Moioli was in second and Brockhoff third, registering the 15th World Cup podium of her career.

Baff finished third in the small final to decide places five to eight, giving her a final ranking of seventh.

“It feels great, it was actually a massive relief for me, I have trained so many new things this year like bindings, boards, coach, tech, just everything, just took a risk to change it up and it’s a big relief that its’ working for me so I am very excited,” said the 30-year-old Brockhoff from Melbourne.

“In the final we all went in pretty hot fighting for that number one position, turn four is really tight and Jana (Fischer) and I got close to each other and just made the best of what we had and it was a really good day for all of us.”

In the men’s event Cam Bolton followed up his good form from the team event on the previous day to finish in fifth place after winning the small final, with Jarryd Hughes 15th in his first World Cup event since the Beijing Olympic Winter Games in February 2022.

Also in action for Australia missing out on finals racing were Amber Essex in 17th in her World Cup debut, Mia Clift 19th, James Johnstone 60th on debut, Declan Dent in 62nd and Adam Lambert 63rd.

Next up for snowboard cross is the final World Cup before Christmas with a double event scheduled to take place in Cervinia, Italy, on December 16-17. 

Australia's snowboard cross athletes have taken part in a World Cup doubleheader in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, with a number of strong performances, just missing the podium on three occasions.
 
In the first event, Belle Brockhoff made the big final, finishing fourth, with 2020 Youth Olympic champion Josie Baff finishing in ninth. On the men’s side, Adam Dickson made the small final, finishing seventh, Cam Bolton 13th, Adam Lambert 17th and Jarryd Hughes 36th.
 
Brockhoff again surged to make the big final and came close again in fourth, with Baff in 17th. Adam Lambert made the big final on the men’s side for Australia’s third fourth-place finish of the weekend, with Dickson in sixth, Bolton in ninth and Hughes in 17th.

After five events, Brockhoff is currently ranked third in the world on the women's World Cup standings, with Adam Lambert (10th), Cam Bolton (11th) and Adam Dickson (14th) all ranked in the top-15 in the men's standings.

The snowboard cross athletes will now return to central Europe to train ahead of the final World Cup event before the Olympics in Cortina d'Amprezzo, Italy, on January 29.

Bell Brockhoff has continued her strong start to the World Cup snowboard cross season, claiming the silver medal overnight in Montafon, Austria.
 
The podium performance sees the 28-year-old from Melbourne move up to third place on the World Cup standings after two events.
 
Brockhoff reached the big final after taking out victories in the quarter and semi final heats. In a closely contested final with several lead changes, Brockhoff was just edged at the finish line behind Charlotte Bankes of Great Britain, with Chloe Trespeuch of France in third.
 
“It’s really good to be back on the podium”, said a happy Brockhoff after collecting the 13th World Cup medal of her career.
 
“I was a bit rusty at the opening World Cup in China, but it was good to get the cobwebs out and bring in some good momentum into this race.
 
In her second World Cup start, 18-year-old Josie Baff from Jindabyne had an impressive qualifying performance, advancing to finals in second place. Baff finished third in her quarter-final heat to give her a personal best ninth place finish.
 
“Definitely a little bit bittersweet today”, said the 2020 Youth Olympic Games gold medallist.
 
“Really stoked to get my first top ten result, but wished it was under different circumstances where I was happy with my riding and run top to bottom.”
 
“But as always, there are heaps of things to take away and put into action for the World Cup in Cervinia next week.”
 
Also in action for Australia was Jarryd Hughes (22nd), Mia Clift (26th), Cam Bolton (26th), Declan Dent (29th), Adam Dickson (33rd), Kobi Dent (47th) and Adam Lambert (57th).
 
The snowboard cross athletes will be back in action tonight competing in the mixed team event in Montafon. 2021 mixed team World Champion’s Brockhoff and Hughes will team up again for Australia.
 
The mixed team event will debut at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.