Jakara Anthony Claims 11th Gold Medal of the Season During Another Good Weekend for Australian Snow Athletes

A swag of medals for Australia’s World Cup athletes with one gold, three silvers and two bronze medals across three disciplines

Mountainwatch | Press Release

Jakara Anthony breaks Australian record for most career mogul victories

Jakara Anthony’s incredible record-breaking season has continued with her eleventh World Cup victory of the season in the dual moguls event in Deer Valley, USA.

Anthony also secured the World Cup Mogul Skiing Overall Crystal Globe at the iconic event, regarded as the “Superbowl” of freestyle skiing as most prestigious stop on the World Cup circuit.

It no doubt made up for the disappointment of her result in the singles mogul event when Anthony crashed on her top jump and finished in   place, her worst result of the season

Anthony has now broken the record for most career mogul skiing wins by an Australian with the 18th victory of her career, going past legendary two-time Olympic medallist Dale Begg-Smith. The 11th win of the season also ties American Hannah Kearney for the most World Cup wins in a single season by a mogul skier.

In front of the largest crowd of the season under lights on the Champion run, Anthony cruised through the round of 16, quarter-final and semi-final rounds to reach the big final.

In the gold medal run, Anthony faced her main rival this season, American Jaelen Kauf, with Anthony putting down another flawless run to take the win 22-13. In head-to-head duels against Kauf this season, Anthony has the edge with four victories to one.

Rounding out the podium in third place was Olivia Giaccio (USA).

”That’s definitely one of my best competition runs I have ever done, and especially my best here on the Champion run, so to do that in the big final against Jaelin was a pretty special moment,” said the 25-year-old from Barwon Heads in Victoria.

“There is no event World Cup like this one, the atmosphere is incredible. The whole finish area is packed with people so to get to perform and put on a show for them is a really special feeling.”

“Locking up eleven wins and equalling Hannah Kearney for the record for the most in the season is absolutely mind-blowing.”

Cooper Woods was the highest-placed Australian in the men’s event, reaching the quarter-final stage in seventh place, with George Murphy 33rd, Oliver Logan 36th and Matt Graham 51st.

Three World Cup events remain this season, with the next competition set to take place in a months’ time in Almaty, Kazakhstan followed by the final event of the season in Valmalenco, Itay.

“It’s a really big season for us this year, we have already had 13 competition starts with three to go. We are going to get a training camp in next, and fine tune some of the finer details of my run, and then get back out there in Kazakhstan and wrap the season up in Italy,” said Anthony.

Bolton Claims  Two Silver Medals  and Brockhoff a Bronze in Georgia

Australian veteran snowboard cross rider Cam Bolton has recorded two podium performances in Gudauri, Georgia, with back-to-back silver medals in a World Cup double header weekend.

At the last World Cup stop in St Moritz, Switzerland, Bolton had an uncharacteristic performance finishing in 52nd place, which no doubt motivated the three-time Olympian to redeem himself this weekend at the Georgian resort, with his first podium performance in two years.

Bolton made a great start to the event qualifying in second place of the first event, and in finals won the round of 32, quarter-final and semi-final round to advance through to his first big-final medal round of the season.

In the big-final, world number one, Eliot Grondin from Canada, led from start to finish to claim the victory, with Bolton and 2022 Olympic gold medallist Alessandro Haemmerle of Austria doing their best to chase down the Canadian. Bolton moved ahead of Haemmerle in the bottom half of the course to take the silver, with Haemmerle settling for the bronze.

Bolton’s excellent form continued the next day where he again made the big final,  squeezing into second in a photo finish just ahead of Italy’s Omar Visintin. Canada’s Eliot Grondon did the job again, winning his second gold of the weekend

“The course was super fun, but definitely not easy to stay in front and no matter what you are always going to be attacked by the riders behind you and it was really close, but fun racing,” said the 33-year-old Bolton from the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.

Also in action for Australia in the men’s event was Adam Lambert who finished seventh in the small final in the first event and Jarryd Hughes recording his best result of the season in 12th place.

In the women’s first event Belle Brockhoff finished in the quarter finals for a 1oth place but bounced back the following day, for a well-earned third place. Great Britain’s Charlotte Banks was first with Chloe Trespeuch, France taking the silver,

Australia’s Josie Baff was also in great form and made it to both small finals, for two sixth place finishes in a big weekend for Australia’s snowboard cross team.

Double Aerial Podium for Australia in Deer valley

Australian aerial skiers Danielle Scott and Abbey Willcox have made it a double podium celebration under lights at the prestigious World Cup event in Deer Valley, USA.

Competing on the Olympic course where Alisa Camplin famously won gold in 2002 and in front of the biggest crowd of the season, Scott was extremely unlucky not to claim victory, finishing with the same score in first place with Winter Vinecki of the USA on 77.90 points, but losing a tiebreak from their form scores (10.3 points to 10.2)

Scott’s silver medal was the 18th podium performance of the three-time Olympian’s career. Claiming bronze with her second career podium – which was also in Deer Valley four years ago – was Willcox who scored 76.85 points.

“Pretty happy, it has been an absolutely crazy day with extreme weather, a bit of rain and super soft snow falling, it’s really hard conditions so to walk away with a podium very happy,” said the 33-year-old Scott from NSW, who trains in Brisbane at the Geoff Henke Olympic Winter Training Centre water jump facility.

“It’s so awesome (to have teammate Willcox on the podium), she has worked so hard and it’s well deserved.”

Willcox was proud of her achievement, back to the best form of her career.

“It’s been four years in the making, so happy to back on the podium and such a beautiful night to be jumping in front of everyone in Deer Valley,” said the 27-year-old Willcox, from Brisbane via the NSW Central Coast.

“It’s pretty much an exact repeat of four years ago, it’s so incredible to share the podium with Dani as well, two Aussies on the podium is amazing.”

With three events remaining Scott is ranked second on the World Cup standings on 200 points, trailing Vinecki by 32 points.

Triple Olympian and dual world champion Laura Peel, did not compete in Deer Valley, electing to take a break for the remainder of the competition season to freshen up in advance of 2026 Olympic qualifying commencing next season. Next on the schedule for the aerial skiers is a double World Cup next weekend in Lac-Beauport, Canada.