Australian Team Named for Beijing Winter Olympics

January 24th, 2022

 

Jakara Anthony has a big season in World Cup moguls and is one to watch in Beijing. Photo: OWIA

Mountainwatch |News

The final pre-Olympics World Cup events have finished, wrapping up the qualifying period for Australian athletes and the Australian Olympic Committee announced the team for the 2022 Beijing Olympics on the weekend.

The team consist of 44 athletes, 42 of whom have been named, with only two figure skating spots yet to be announced for the games which start on February 4th.

The past few months have been very busy for our skiers and snowboarders with a number of World Cups in Europe and North America and a lot of cross-Atlantic travel. However there have been some great results, including World Cup wins for Jakara Anthony (moguls), Laura Peel and Danielle Scott (aerials) and Tess Coady (snowboard slopestyle). Jackie Narracott also won Australia’s first ever World Cup sliding medal when she won the skeleton World Cup in St Moritz two weeks ago while Scotty James won the X Games Superpipe on the weekend.

 

Scotty James, fresh off a win in Aspen and set chasing gold in Beijing.

A testament to the strength of Australia’s mogul program is eight mogul skiers have been selected, the maximum possible quota, with four men and four women qualifying for Beijing. After debuting in Vancouver in 2010 as 15-year-old, Britt Cox will compete in her fourth Olympic games while 2018 Olympics silver medallist Matt Graham and Brodie Summers are back four their third Olympics.

Jakara Anthony, Taylah O’Neill and James Matheson will contest their second Olympics while Cooper Woods and Sophie Ash are making their Olympic debut.

Three aerial skiers have been announced with world champion Laura Peel and multiple World Cup medallist Danielle Scott both competing in their third Games.  Gabi Ash will make her Olympic debut in aerial skiing, joining her sister Sophie in a big moment for the Ash family.

 

Jarryd Hughes and Belle Brockhoff back for their third Olympics. Photo: GEPA/@fissnowboard

We have a very strong snowboard contingent, made up of 11 athletes across slopestyle, halfpipe and boarder cross. In Snowboard Cross, reigning Olympic silver medallist Jarryd Hughes, Belle Brockhoff and Cam Bolton will all compete at their third Games, Adam Lambert his second, while 2020 Youth Olympic champion Josie Baff and Adam Dickson will make their Olympic debut.

Scotty James, who also made his Olympic debut as a 15-year-old in Vancouver will contest his fourth Olympics halfpipe event and is looking to turn his bronze medal frim 2018 into gold. He’ll be joined in halfpipe by another first-timer, 16-year-old Valentino Guseli, the youngest member of the Australian team. Emily Arthur will also compete in her second Olympics in the women’s halfpipe while Tess Coady, one of the form riders this season,  is looking to overcome the disappointment of 2018 PyeongChang games where her Olympic campaign ended when she suffered a knee injury during training on the day of the event.

Matty Cox rounds out the snowboarding contingent, the 23-year-old making his Olympic debut in the men’s slopestyle. Freeskier Abi Harrigan is another first timer, set to compete in halfpipe, big air and slopestyle, while Sami Kennedy-Sim is back for her third Olympics in the skicross.

 

Matty Cox, pre-season training at the Stomping Grounds in Saas Fee last October. The hard work has paid off and he off to his first Olympic Games.

Six cross country skiers have been named in Cross Country with Phillip Bellingham joining the illustrious three-Olympics club. Casey Wright and Jess Yeaton will compete at their second Games, while Lars Young Vik, Seve de Campo and Hugo Hinckfuss will make their Olympic debut.

In alpine skiing Greta Small has been named for her third Games and is competing in the downhill, super-G and alpine combined events. Madison Hoffman, Louis Muhlen-Schulte and Katie Parker will make their debuts, all competing in both the slalom and giant slalom events.

The athletes competing in the ice events are Tahill Gill and Dean Hewitt (curling), Brendan Corey (short track speed skating), Kiera Reddinglus, Bree Walker (bobsleigh) Alex Ferlaz (luge) Jackie Narracott and Nick Timmings (skeleton).