Over the past week, I’ve been privileged to witness first-hand Australia’s greatest ever Winter Olympics. At the time of writing, we have the same number of gold medals as 2022 Games host China, which has 50 times our population. An incredible performance by our team.
This is a story that transcends medal counts. Deep in the snowy mountains of Italy, a quintessential Australian story has unfolded. One that should engender great pride in all Australians, irrespective of whether they strap on the skis or a board.
Australia flag bearers Jakara Anthony and Matt Graham.Credit: Getty Images
It’s a story that goes to the core of Australian spirit and identity, and our ability to achieve on the most competitive of world stages, irrespective of structural disadvantages of population, money or geography.
A story of the power of underdog spirit, of resilience and commitment to create a system that produces repeatable success, of working smart with limited resources, of ordinary Australian families enabling the success of their exceptional sons and daughters. It’s also a tribute to the athletes themselves – not just their exceptional skill, but the courage that is an essential accompaniment for success in these sports.
There is no finer example of the power of the Australian underdog spirit to produce world-class competitors. Jakara Anthony, who was born in Cairns and grew up in Barwon Heads, those renowned winter sports meccas, learnt her craft at Mount Buller and is now a dual Olympic champion, beating the cream of the crop who started on skis in the Alps and the Rockies when they could barely walk. Cooper Woods, who knocked off the men’s mogul GOAT Mikael Kingsbury to win gold, hails from Merimbula. Matt Graham, bronze medallist, is from country NSW. It’s an extraordinary tale of accomplishment against the “natural order”. It’s like Switzerland beating Australia at cricket.
The Olympic Winter Institute of Australia received just $5.975 million in high-performance funding in 2024-25. To put that in context, AFL club Collingwood spent $37.5m last year in team and high-performance expenses.
Stories like these are an obvious huge credit to the athletes, but they don’t simply happen, they need a system behind them. We’ve had just that, one that’s combined smarts with a long term, patient commitment, that’s been able to succeed with a remarkably small funding base supporting it.
Our most successful program in Milano Cortina, moguls, is an overnight success story 30 years in the making. This program started in the late 1990s. It’s been a generational story, underpinned by development pathway programs, investment in coaching excellence and depth, and world-class domestic training environments such as the Chandler water ramp and the Jindabyne national centre.
Plaudits to Snow Australia led by Michael Kennedy, the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA) led by Geoff Lipshut, the Australian Olympic Committee, the Australian Sports Commission, the Victorian and NSW Institutes of Sport, pioneers like Geoff Henke, and the mountain resorts of Mount Buller, Hotham, Falls Creek, Thredbo and Perisher for working as a system to make this happen. Champions such as Alisa Camplin, Lydia Lassila, Matt Graham and Brittany Cox have reinvested their time and expertise in inspiring and developing the next generation. Coaches such as Pete McNiel, coach of all three of our moguls medallists at these Olympics, are best-in-class worldwide.
