What a weekend for Australian snow sports, and what a weekend for women with multiple medals for our female athletes.
First up, snowboarder Michaela Davis-Meehan took out gold on the FIS Freeride World Tour stop at Kicking Horse Mountain, beating out the world’s best free riders on one of the most exciting mountains on the circuit. The Ozone face is known for steep chutes, cliffs and cornices which Davis-Meehan took in her stride.
“I feel amazing, mostly relieved after crashing in the first two competitions,” said Davis-Meehan after her win.
“It feels great to land my run, the snow was perfect, the drops were beautiful, and I finally feel good about my riding again.”
A cross country first
Cross country skier, Rosie Fordham, won Australia’s first ever international cross-country skiing medal, taking silver in the 10km interval skating race.
Fordham was competing in the FIS junior/U23 World Ski Championships in Italy and was a mere 25.7 seconds behind the gold medal winner, Helen Hoffman of Germany.
Monobob gold
Monobob athlete, Bree Walker, secured her first bobsleigh World Cup victory of the season and second of her career, with an impressive win in Lillehammer, Norway, sharing the gold medal with American Kaysha Love in a dead heat, the first tie in monobob World Cup history.
Walker opened with a time of 54.56 seconds in the first heat, recording the second fastest time of the round, trailing 2022 Olympic champion Laura Nolte of Germany by a mere 0.01 seconds.
In the final run, Walker again posted the second fastest time in 54.58 seconds, giving her a combined time of 1:49.14, to equal American Kaysha Love. Nolte, the last competitor down the 1994 Olympic track, was unable to surpass Walker and Love, slipping 0.07 seconds behind in third place.
The 2022 Olympian now has 11 career monobob World Cup podiums.
“Really happy to be able to secure my first win of the season after being so close a few times” said the 32-year-old from Queensland.
“I really love sliding here, I was feeling really good coming into this race, but I knew it would be a very competitive, race as always, so I just went out there and focused on pushing really fast and driving well and was able to come away with the win so very happy with that.”
Australian first with 1-2-3-4 in aerial skiing
Australian aerial skiers swept the first four places at the iconic World Cup event in Deer Valley, USA, the first time Australia has filled the podium in any winter sport.
Leading the way was two-time World Champion Laua Peel who claimed her third straight victory and 12th win of her impressive career, ahead of defending World Cup champion Danielle Scott in second, Abbey Willcox was third and Airleigh Frigo fourth.
Competing on the historic 2002 Olympic Course, athletes encountered challenging weather throughout the week. Warm conditions led to the cancellation of two training days, and heavy snowfall on the event day forced the qualification round to be rescheduled to the night final session.
In difficult conditions, Peel reduced her degree of difficulty to double somersaults, scoring 87.88 points for her full-full double twisting double somersault jump and advancing to the top-six super final in first place. Willcox, Scott, and Frigo also performed the same full-full jump, securing second, third, and fourth places with scores of 82.53, 79.38, and 78.12, respectively.
In the super-final, athletes were able to perform the same jump from the qualification round. All Australian athletes chose to compete with the full-full jump. Peel secured the win with a score of 87.57, followed closely by Scott, in silver with 86.31. Willcox earned the bronze medal on 81.58, and Frigo was fourth place on 69.30.
After four events, Peel has extended her position at the top of the World Cup standings with an impressive 310 points. Scott has moved into second place with 224 points, while Willcox and Frigo are in eighth and ninth places with 138 and 133 points, respectively.
