Jakara Anthony has become Australia’s first gold medalist at the Winter Olympic Games in 12 years.
The 23-year-old won the women’s freestyle moguls competition overnight on Sunday in Beijing—it was Australia’s sixth ever Winter Olympic gold in history.
“It is a real testament to myself and the team around me in the last four years,” Anthony told media after the impressive win.
“It really hasn’t been easy. I think that I am a much better athlete and person because of it. I think that is the best thing that has come out of this.”
Mogul skiing is a one-timed run of free skiing on a steep, heavily moguled course—something Anthony has just proved to be a world champion at doing.
Anthony had a nerve wracking final round where she was required to beat the frontrunner, America’s Jaelin Kauf who had scored 80.28.
But with her precision and undeniable skill, Anthony’s run tipped the impressive result to earn herself a score of 83.09, securing her the gold.
Pro freestyle skier Lydia Lassila, who won Australia’s last gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games alongside snowboarder Torah Bright, explained just how impressive Anthony’s win was.
“It is not easy. We have seen it so many times it the Olympics, it is not easy to win an Olympic medal but she made it look simple.”
“I have flashbacks to presenting Jakara Anthony with intra school medals at the top of the podium. As a little kid, even then she had this intensity about her, you could tell that she was going somewhere,” she added.
Anthony’s win also marked another historic first—she won on the same day Tess Coady took home a bronze in the women’s slopestyle, marking the first time Australia has nabbed two medals in a day.
Coady battled some tough competition but ultimately pushed through to earn herself the third spot on the podium with a final score of 84.15, just behind runner-up Julia Marina (US) with 87.68 and gold-medal winner Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (New Zealand) with 92.88.
Afterwards, Coady summed up the experience perfectly by telling Seven News: “That was wild and so insane. I’m dying. That was so insane.”
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