This Is Australia’s Greatest Winter Olympic Games Ever

• Australia has officially secured a record five medals at a single Winter Olympic Games.
• Jakara Anthony turned heartbreak into history, with Australia’s first-ever gold in Dual Moguls.
• A huge weekend in Milano Cortina has set a new benchmark for Australian winter sport.

Heading into a busy weekend of Winter Olympic Games, Australia was already on the brink of history at the halfway point, buoyed by a powerful opening week in Italy that put the country’s Olympic hopefuls in a strong position to stick the landing.

Of course, nothing is ever guaranteed at the pointy end of international competition. Formats can evolve and snowy conditions can shift overnight, turning medal expectations upside down in moments.

So for Australia’s Olympic heroes entering the heats in Italy, the chance to best their previous record-breaking run in Beijing four years earlier, where four medals, including one gold, confirming Australia’s most successful Winter Olympics campaign in history, was too good to pass up.

By Sunday night in Livigno, that record had been comfortably shattered, securing five medals at a single Winter Games, with three gold, one silver and one bronze, officially cementing Milano Cortina as the most successful Winter Olympic Games in the country’s sporting history. It’s fair to say Australia’s Italian job has emphatically delivered.

At the heart of it all stands Jakara Anthony, Australia’s flag bearer, and now, the most decorated Winter Olympian Australia has ever produced.

It could have gone differently for the Queensland athlete after heartbreak in the Singles event just a few days prior, crashing out of the Final despite entering as one of the heavy favourites to finish 8th.

Anthony didn’t have time to dwell too much on her mistakes; dusting off the snow to take her place in just her second Dual Moguls event in as many years.

“To be honest, I was doubting myself a bit this morning after what happened the other day,” said Anthony.

“This was only my second duals event in about two-and-a-half years. Missing the whole of last season with injury and then a lot of events getting cancelled this year, I only got the one event leading in. There were just a lot of unknowns.”

The Queenslander entered the Games with the weight of expectation; she was the flag bearer for the Australian Olympic Team; she was the poster girl for much of the promotional materials. She leaves as the nation’s first two-time Winter Olympic gold medallist, Australia’s first-ever Olympic title in the newly added event, and Australia’s third in all events at this year’s Winter Games.

But for Australia’s medal hopefuls, the gold rush didn’t exactly stop there, with 23-year-old Josie Baff adding another gold in women’s snowboard cross event earlier in the weekend.

Baff’s heroics added a second gold in the competition, after Australia’s freestyle skiing high-flyer Cooper Woods delivered a breakthrough performance to claim gold in the Men’s Moguls.

Narrowly missing out on his elusive first gold medal was Scotty James, Australia’s favourite alpine son, who claimed silver in the men’s halfpipe in one of the highest-quality finals the sport has ever seen.

The four-time world lit up the men’s halfpipe final, in what many are calling the most impressive in the sport’s recent history, rebounding from an opening-run error to stomp a massive second run.

James went for a confident move in the last, attempting a backside 1620 to secure his maiden gold medal finish in Italy. It didn’t quite land, and Japan’s Yuto Totsuka capitalised. But James still walked away with his third Olympic medal after bronze in 2018 and silver in 2022.

Elsewhere, Australia’s flag bearer Matt Graham signed off his final Olympic appearance in style, securing the bronze in the men’s dual moguls to take Australia’s medal tally to five in Italy.

With competition still unfolding, history has already been written. This is officially Australia’s greatest Winter Olympic Games ever. Not just for the medals won, but for the standard now set. Bring on the second week.