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Snowboard Cross and Ski Cross - 2022/23 discipline wrap

Published Fri 21 Apr 2023

Australia’s ski and snowboard cross athletes enjoyed a stellar season abroad, but the headline act was reserved for Josie Baff.  

Snowboard Cross
The 20-year-old Jindabyne rider opened and closed the World Cup season with victories, collecting five medals in total including a spectacular silver medal performance at her first-ever World Championships. 

In her best season yet, Baff topped the podium at the Junior World Championships winning the Team event with 18-year-old up and coming rider James Johnstone. She also finished second in the individual event. 

“I went into Junior World Championships wanting to win, so placing second in the individual event gave me some much-needed fire and energy for the teams event the following day,” said Baff. “When I crossed the line in first, it was super cool to see James at the bottom and share that moment together and knowing how much it meant to him brought the biggest smile to my face,” she said. 

It was a remarkable year for the Beijing Olympian as she finished the season as the number three ranked female snowboard cross athlete in the world. 

Overall, Australia finished with four top 10 performances at the World Championships after Olympians Cameron Bolton and Adam Lambert reached the men’s semi-finals. The pair narrowly missed advancing to the big-final after they finished third and fourth in the same heat. In the small-final, Bolton narrowly missed crossing the line in first in a photo finish, giving him a final ranking of sixth, with Lambert in eighth. Bolton and Baff also combined for the Snowboard Cross Team event in Georgia, placing ninth.

Lambert was the top placed Australian in the men’s SBX world rankings, in 11th place. He saved his best results until last, finishing first and second in the small finals of the final two races of a season which included four World Cup top 10s and eighth place at the World Championships.  Bolton was narrowly behind in the world rankings in 14th palace, after four top 10 results.

Belle Brockhoff opened her season with a Big Final at the Cervinia World Cup in December, placing 4th. She also placed 6th in Cortina and 15th in Les Deux Alpes, before her season came to an end as she returned home after the devastating loss of her father.

Ski Cross
The ski cross group has seen a reset since the retirement of Sami Kennedy Sim, with Robbie Morrison electing to remain in Australia and focus on conditioning post-knee reconstruction a year ago, and Doug Crawford took time this winter to focus more towards improving technical elements of his skiing rather than competing full time at World Cup. 

Crawford did represent Australia at the Bakuriani World Championships, placing 35th in the men’s event. His best World Cup result for this season came at the Veysonnaz event in March, where he placed 33rd.

Australia was represented by Jesse Quinn and Duncan Cowan at the Junior World Championships in San Pellegrino, Italy, where the duo placed 8th in the team event from 17 nations. Individually, Quinn placed 13th in the women’s Ski Cross event, with Duncan 35th in the men’s race.

During April, snow.org.au have been wrapping up the 2022/23 international season. In cased you missed them, check out the other discipline wraps below: 

 

We look forward to celebrating all athletes at the upcoming 2022 Snow Australia Awards on Thursday 27 April in Melbourne.

Don’t miss Australian snowsport’s night of nights - book your tickets now. 

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