Matt Graham secures his third podium medal for moguls this season with a bronze in Tazawako Japan yesterday.
Twenty-year-old Australian Matt Graham finished his moguls World Cup season on a high when he secured his third medal for 2014/15 in Tazawako, Japan, yesterday.
Graham’s third place in the World Cup dual moguls in Tazawako is the 11th medal in World Cup and World Championships this season for Australian winter sport athletes, underlining the strength of Aussie performances this season.
The event was won by Canadian Mikael Kingsbury, who made it back-to-back victories in Japan, ahead of compatriot Philippe Marquis in second.
After a slow start to the season, Graham hit his straps in January by taking the silver medal in Deer Valley, USA, and followed up with another second place in Val St Come, Canada, three weeks ago.
Yesterday’s bronze medal, Graham’s first podium finish in duals, caps off a highly successful season for Graham and the OWIA/NSWIS moguls program.
Graham and his teammate Britt Cox have made it to the podium of five occasions this season, clearly demonstrating that Australian moguls skiing is going from strength to strength.
Graham’s result yesterday has cemented his world ranking of four and despite the fact that he will not compete in the last stop on the World Cup tour in Megeve, France, on March 15, it seems likely that he will retain this ranking at season end.
Canadian Simon Pouliot-Cavanagh is currently in fifth position on the standings, 68 points behind the Aussie.
Coming off a 10th place in the singles event in Tazawako on Saturday, Graham was determined to wrap up his season with a strong performance in the duals, which is exactly what he did right from the start of competition.
He was given a bye in the round of 64, due to his strong world ranking, then ended Russian Maksim Mikhaylov’s day in the round of 32, accounted for Frenchman Benjamin Cavet in the quarters but then came up against Kingsbury, the world number one, in a semi-final.
Graham, who is normally a strong starter in dual moguls, was slow out of the gate in the semi and with the high importance placed on speed in duals, the Aussie was always playing catch up, enabling the Canadian to win through to the final.
This placed the Australian in the consolation final against Pouliot-Cavanagh to battle it out for the third medal. Graham was the dominant skier throughout the consolation final.
Graham labelled the season as a “breakthrough” in terms of fulfilling his career ambitions.
“Overall this season has been a bit of a breakthrough year for me,” Graham said.
“It has really motivated me to work hard this off season and come back stronger again next year.
“Right now I am really enjoying mogul skiing, I feel like I am 12 years old again, just going out having fun each day training and I think that has made a big difference this year.”
The architect of the moguls skiing program’s success, head coach Steve Desovich paid tribute to Graham and Cox, praising their work ethic in the off season and throughout the northern hemisphere winter as well as acknowledging the valuable input from strength and conditioning coach John Marsden and moguls skiing aerial coach Jerry Grossi.
“I’d say this has been a very good season,” Desovich said.
“I didn’t expect Matt to be on the podium three times this season. I thought he may be ready for some special results but until it happens, you can’t say it’s expected.”
