Mogul skier Matt Graham claimed his second medal at the 2023 FIS World Championships overnight, capturing the bronze medal in the dual moguls in Bakuriani, Georgia, becoming just the second Australian to ever win two medals at a FIS World Championships after Dale Begg-Smith’s gold and silver in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, back in 2007.
Graham has now collected an impressive four World Championship medals across his career and has won at least one medal at each of the past three World titles, which are held every two years.
After taking the silver medal in the single moguls in Georgia, Graham was full of confidence heading into the dual moguls, which will feature in the Olympic Winter Games for the first time in 2026 at Milano-Cortina, Italy.
Graham had victories in the round of 32 against British skier Thomas Gerken-Schofield and Kosuke Sugimoto in the round of 16 to reach the quarter final stage.
After defeating Nick Page of the USA in the quarter-final, Graham then faced 2022 Olympic gold medallist Walter Wallberg of Sweden in the semi-final, going down 14-21 points. .
In the duel for the bronze medal, Graham then defeated Pavel Kolmakov of Kazakhstan with a score of 20-15 for his second medal at the World Championships.
“To go back-to-back in any World Cup or World Championships is awesome, and now we have the opportunity to do it at the Olympics, in three years’ time assuming I am there – that’s what I will be chasing,” said the 28-year-old from the NSW Central Coast.
“It felt pretty exhausting to be honest. There are a lot of runs in duals and the intensity was so high, and it’s been a long week with three training days and two competition days. At the top I was just trying to psych myself up and get the legs firing each run and just happy to make it down and get through all the rounds and come away with a bronze medal.”
“Strength and conditioning off snow is so important, and now having duals at the Olympics it’s even more important to have to put runs down back-to-back on such a quick timeline, so I guess I need to get home and back in the gym.”
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- FIS Freestyle Ski, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships – Bakuriani GEO – Moguls – Men’s podium with 2nd GRAHAM Matt AUS, 1st KINGSBURY Mikael CAN and 3rd WALLBERG Walter SWE © Miha Matavz/FIS
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- FIS Freestyle Ski, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships – Bakuriani GEO – Dual Moguls – GRAHAM Matt AUS and KOLMAKOV Pavel KAZ © Miha Matavz/FIS
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- FIS Freestyle Ski, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships – Bakuriani GEO – Dual Moguls – GRAHAM Matt AUS and KOLMAKOV Pavel KAZ © Miha Matavz/FIS
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- FIS Freestyle Ski, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships – Bakuriani GEO – Dual Moguls – Men’s podium with 2nd WALLBERG Walter SWE, 1st KINGSBURY Mikael CAN and 3rd GRAHAM Matt AUS © Miha Matavz/FIS
Cooper Woods had a number of impressive duels in the early rounds and was unlucky not to advance through to the quarter finals, with the judges awarding his round of 16 dual to Kolmakov 18-17, giving him a final ranking of ninth.
Also in action for Australia in just a second start in the World Championship were George Murphy in 14th place and Jackson Harvey in 19th.
