Olympics: Moguls ready to rise to the top

Courtesy: www.olympics.com.au 

Australia’s full contingent moguls team have enjoyed their first training run on the PyeongChang 2018 course – and they believe the conditions are primed for Australian success.

Four Australian men and four Australian women will compete in the freestyle skiing event, beginning with qualifications on Day 0 (Friday 9 February).

The team competed on the Phoenix Snow Park course in February 2017 but recent adjustments to the moguls has put the competition into Australia’s advantage.

“The moguls are actually quite big and firm which adds a bit more technicality to the course,” Sochi Olympian Matt Graham said.

“Last year from my perspective the course may have been slightly easy so they’ve done a really good job to build the top section up and put a bit more pitch and firmer and icier moguls in which I think will work into [Australia’s] favour as we’re generally really technical skiers so that gives us a lot of confidence going forward into the week.”

Graham, who is competing in his second Winter Olympic Games, said the course design would "separate the men from the boys".

“For us [the course is] quite normal; it’s 250m, it’s about 28 degrees in pitch but what can change is just the snow conditions, the shape of the moguls, the transitions to the jumps.

“That’s the stuff they can really manipulate to make the course more technical, and for us we thrive on technical courses and challenging courses.”

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