Australia on the cusp of best ever Olympic Winter Games medal haul

Australia reached the halfway mark of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 with a complete set of medals, winning gold, silver and bronze in the moguls, snowboard halfpipe and slopestyle, respectively. 

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Jakara Anthony
(2022 Getty Images)

The three medals are already an improvement on PyeongChang 2018, where the team went home with two silvers and a bronze and are on target to add more to their tally before the end of the showpiece on Sunday, 20 February. Should they add more to their collection, the class of 2022 may eclipse their most successful Winter Olympics at Vancouver 2010, where they won two gold and one silver medal.

Jakara Anthony has a golden glow

The Australian contingent got their campaign off to a roaring start with Jakara Anthony and Tess Coady winning gold and silver in their respective events on Sunday (6 February). Anthony made history winning gold in the moguls becoming the first Australian woman to earn a medal in the event at the Olympic Winter Games.

The freestyle skier stamped her authority, winning all her rounds to reach the final, where she claimed the gold medal with a score of 83.09 points. The two-time Olympian finished 2.81 points ahead of the second-placed Jaelin Kauf of the United States.

"I'm so proud that I was able to let myself ski like that," Anthony said.

"Gold medal was the plan, so I'd say it went according to plan. It was pretty tough to try not to get too far ahead of yourself.

"You have to constantly bring yourself back to the moment and just try to take things one step at a time, which is easier said than done."

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Scotty James' superb silver

Halfpipe snowboarder Scotty James was full of value in the massive halfpipe at the Genting Snow Park, where he landed a switch backside 1260-to-1440 combo to earn him the silver in the men's snowboard halfpipe final.

James briefly spent time in first place before Japan's Hirano Ayumu unleashed a pair of triple corks for a winning score of 96.0 in his final run to relegate the Australian into second place.

The 27-year-old James won the silver with 92.50 adding to the bronze he won four years ago at PyeongChang 2018, with Switzerland's Jan Scherrer (87.25) finishing third.

"It was always going to be a really good challenge today. All of the guys, the other 11 guys, in the field were all riding super well," James said. "And for me, I'm speechless and pretty honestly quite happy to be on the podium. It's a big feat. I mean, the whole field is riding super well, so I had a few other plans there in the end. But you know, it is what it is, and I'm very happy with the end result."

(2022 Getty Images)

Stoked Tess Coady breaks the ice

Tess Coady launched Australia's campaign at the Games in earnest, winning the team's first medal claiming bronze in the women's snowboard slopestyle at the Genting Snow Park.

The 21-year-old became the youngest Australian woman to win a Winter Olympic medal producing a double cork frontside 1080 to bag the bronze. The Australian-born Kiwi Zoi Sadowski-Synnott won the gold medal with an impressive 92.88 with Julia Marino of the United States winning silver (87.68).

"Making the finals is such a big deal. I really just wanted to come out here today and send it because I knew everyone was going to," said Coady, who made her Olympic debut PyeongChang when she was 17. "There was no point in a safe run. I wanted to lay something down that I'd be really proud of. I'm so stoked to have been able to do that."

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