Aussie medals flow at X-Games and World Cup

Courtesy OWIA

Another weekend of record performances for Australia's leading winter sports athletes, with the highlight being an incredible three medal performance on the opening day of the X-Games in Aspen, USA, with gold to Scotty James, silver to Tess Coady and bronze for Valentino Guseli.

Jakara Anthony also took home her fifth World Cup medal of the season.

Snowboard: Gold, silver and bronze for Aussies at X-Games
Australian athletes have had a record day at the winter X-Games in Aspen, USA, featuring a first ever double medal performance in the halfpipe with Scotty James claiming his sixth X-Games victory together with super teen Valentino Guseli in bronze and his first X-Games podium. Tess Coady also claimed her first X-Games hardware with silver in the ladies snowboard slopestyle.

In snowy conditions in front of a huge crowd at the Aspen halfpipe, VIS athlete James was again the dominant rider, with two outstanding runs giving him back-to-back victories at the event. With victory secure, James could perform a “victory lap” on his third and final run, high fiving the crowd on his way down. Only the legendary Shaun White has more X-Games halfpipe titles with eight.

NSWIS teen snowboarding prodigy Valentino Guseli was also impressive with his maiden podium performance at the X-Games, with a spectacular third and final run to put him into second place. Swiss rider Jan Scherrer just managed to relegate Guseli into third place on his final run.

“This feels amazing, it’s hard to put into words how excited I am,” James said after his run.

“It was pretty challenging conditions to say the least as it was dumping so much, but I feel really happy to be riding with everyone and seeing how all adapted to the conditions.”

Slopestyle silver for Coady
In the slopestyle event, 2022 Olympic bronze medallist Coady had her best result of the season to claim her first ever medal at the X-Games, and be the first Australian snowboard slopestyle medallist finishing in second place.

The NSWIS rider moved into first place in her third and final run, and was unlucky to not take the win, with the judges awarding first place to Olympic Champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott on the last run of the day. Rounding out the podium was Kokomo Murase of Japan in third.

The following day Coady was back in action competing in the big air event, where she finished in eighth place.

Single Moguls: Anthony wins fifth medal of the season in Canada
Jakara Anthony has remained the number one ranked mogul skier in the world, following a silver medal performance in Val St Come, Canada, her fifth medal of the season.

After advancing through to finals in first place, the NSWIS skier scored 81.88 points in the super final to be just edged out of first place by 0.37 points to Anri Kawamura of Japan. American Jaelin Kauf rounded out the podium in third place with a score of 78.34.

After four events, Anthony is ranked first on the mogul standings with 380 points, with French skier Parrine Laffont in second with 270 and Kawamura in third on 248.

“Definitely a solid performance, obviously wanted that top sport, but so does every girl out there, so you have to be laying it down every run,” said the 2022 Olympic Champion.

Also in action for Australia in the men’s event was Matt Graham who finished sixth in the super final, Cooper Woods 13th, Jackson Harvey 17th and George Murphy 38th.

Dual Moguls: Graham just misses duals podium
Competing in the second day of competition in Val St Come, Canada, 2018 Olympic medallist Matt Graham has just fallen short of obtaining his second podium of the season, finishing in fourth place.

The NSWIS skier had victories in the round of 32 and 16 against Japanese skiers Kosuke Sugimoto and Ikuma Horishima to advance to the semi-final stage.

In a tight semi-final against 2022 Olympic Champion Walter Wallberg of Sweden, Graham was unlucky to go down in a score of 19-16 points to the Swede.

In the duel for third place, Graham faced another Swede, Filip Gravenfors, losing another close one 20-15.

Other Australians in action in the dual moguls were Jakara Anthony in ninth, Jackson Harvey 15th, Cooper Woods 31st and George Murphy 38th.

The World Cup Moguls tour now heads to Deer Valley, USA, with the Utah resort hosing a single moguls event on February 2 and dual moguls on February 4.

Alpine Skiing: PB for Laidlaw at Schladming World Cup
Harry Laidlaw has recorded a personal best World Cup performance in Schladming, Austria, finishing in 37th place in the giant slalom event,

The result improves on his previous best finish of 39th place at the World Cup in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, back in March 2022.

Competing under a huge crowd at night at the Austrian resort, the 2018 Olympian finished in a time of 1:12.64, 3.59 seconds behind Swiss skier Loic Meillard who went on to win the event.

Louis Muhlen-Schulte was also in action at Schladming, competing in the slalom event where he finished in 48th place in the first run.

The alpine skiing athletes will now prepare for the upcoming World Championships in Courchevel-Meribel, France, which will take place from February 6-19.