A Silver Weekend for Australia at Winter Youth Olympic Games
Mountainwatch | News
Two Australian freestyle skiers won silver medals at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games (WYOG) in Gangwon, Korea on the weekend, Lotte Lodge taking silver in Dual Moguls on Saturday followed by Daisy Thomas in the freeski Big Air yesterday.
The 2024 event marks the first-time dual moguls has been on the WYOG program, with Lottie’s medal the second for team Australia at the fourth edition of the Games. It follows last weekend’s bronze from Abbey Wilson and William Martin when thy placed third in the snowboard cross team’s event.
The 17-year-old from Jindabyne was in strong form through the round robin heats, winning three of her four duals to progress through to the semi-finals where she then defeated USA’s team dual bronze medallist Abby McLarnon 20-15.
Coming up against USA World Cup skier Elizabeth Lemley in the Big Final, Lottie put down her best run of the day to claim silver, going down 22-13.
Lottie said she was “stoked” with today’s results and excited by the opportunity to ski against Elizabeth Lemley.
“I was so surprised when I beat Abby in the semi-final, because she is a great skier, but so stoked at the same time,” she said. “I was so excited to ski against (Elizabeth) Lemley in the big final, it was so much fun. I came into today just wanting to ski consistently and do the same runs I was doing in training, that is what I was focusing on in the start gate.
“I also just wanted to go out there and do my own run, not worry about what the person next to me was doing, and I think I did that. I am just so stoked to represent Australia and to come away with a silver medal.”
Today’s silver medal comes a day after Lottie finished 7th in mixed team dual moguls. Australian team mogul coach and 2014 Winter Olympian Nicole Parks said that Lottie’s determination and incredible work ethic is what set her up for today’s performance.
“I think what makes Lottie a really good mogul skier is that she’s always reaching for something more,” she said. “She has incredible work ethic and is such a hard worker. Lottie skied really well all day today. She went out there wanting to ski consistently and she did just that. I am over the moon and absolutely stoked for her!”
“Today’s result will set Lottie up well for future competitions and help build her confidence. I can’t wait to see what the future holds; hopefully we can see her in Milano Cortina in two years’ time.”
Edward Hill was also in action today at Jeongseon High 1 Ski Resort, finishing the men’s dual moguls in 9th place.
Daisy Thomas wins Australia’s first ever Winter Youth Olympic medal in Big Air.
The action switched to the park and pipe venue at Weli Hilli Park yesterday, the freeski and snowboard Big Air final taking place on the bottom 65-foot jump in the competition slopestyle park. The qualification rounds were held on Saturday with 10 athlete’s progressing through to finals yesterday, with Daisy Thomas and team mate Joey Elliss both qualifying in second place, while Australian snowboarder Ali Hickman, the youngest competitor in the field, qualified in 7th place.
Daisy set the tone early in the women’s final with a left double 10 safety and a score of 91 to be on top of the leader board after the first run. Her second scoring jump was a switch left bio safety and she ended up claiming the silver medal with a combined score of 172.75, just 7.25 points behind gold medallist Flora Tabanelli from Italy.
The 16-year-old, who made her World Cup debut in December last year, said she was happy to land on the podium after her fifth-place finish in slopestyle.
“I came here with the goal of getting on the podium, I’ve had the Youth Olympic medal on my phone’s home screen for over a year now, and to now have the medal in my hands feels so surreal!” Daisy said. “I was pretty close to the podium in slopestyle, so heading into this morning I was pretty confident but also pretty excited and determined to get on the podium.
“I went in confident in my own ability, in my training and in my two tricks. I had a game plan and ultimately just had to execute that plan, which I did. I was pretty stoked after scoring high on my first jump (91.00), it took the pressure off a little bit and set me up well for the rest of the competition.”
The competition saw athletes perform three different tricks, with the accumulation of their best two scores making up their final score.
Daisy’s silver is Australia’s third medal of the Games, just one off Australia’s most ever WYOG medal haul (four at Lillehammer 2016), with a week of competition still to come.
Australian free ski coach Nicko Drew said he is proud of what Daisy achieved.
“I am extremely happy with Daisy’s performance today,” Mr Drew said. “Daisy is such a self-motivated and driven athlete, constantly striving to be better.
“We had a plan coming into this event, to show the judges why she deserves to be on the podium by clearly demonstrating good amplitude, good control and strong grabs and its great we were able to do just that.
“We came out today and wanted to set the tone from the start, kicking off with her best trick in the first run (left double 10 safety) to put the pressure on the rest of the field, and then go from there,” he continued.
“It’s great she managed to stick to the plan and execute some really solid jumps.”
Teammate Joey Ellis was also leading the men’s big air after round one, the 17-year-old from Thredbo throwing an impressive double 1400 with a mute grab for a score of 87.1. Going into the third and final jump is was one of five athletes with a shot at the gold medal and was looking to land a switch triple1200. Unfortunately, the jump didn’t go as planned and he landed a lower-scoring switch double 12 and wrapped up his Youth Olympic campaign with a still-impressive 5th place with a score of 134.00.
In the women’s snowboard Ali Hickman, landed a clean backside 5 for a solid score but she landed short on her second scoring trick, a frontside 720, and ended up in 9th place. Hickman also made the slopestyle finals, finishing eighth, and making two finals in this level of competition points to a bright future for the young snowboarder.
The halfpipe competition starts on February 1st at Welli Hilli Park where Sascha Elvy, Emelie Haskell and Tai Vaughn will be in action for Australia.
