Australia gets first Snowboard Cross World Cup mixed team win

Cameron Bolton and Josie Baff have combined to win Australia’s first ever World Cup gold medal in the snowboard cross mixed team event in Erzurum, Türkiye, giving Josie two medals for the weekend after finishing third in yesterday’s individual event.

In the medal round, the Australia 1 team featuring Cam and Josie were joined by teams from Great Britain 1, Austria 1 and USA 2.

Cam had a great opening leg leading from start to finish, crossing the line three hundredths of a second ahead of the USA. It gave Josie a small lead heading into the final women’s run.

In the final run Josie also managed to maintain the lead from start to finish, holding off a strong challenge from Great Britain’s Charlotte Bankes to claim victory by four hundredths of a second.

Photo credit: FIS Snowboard

Rounding out the podium in third place was Austria.

“Cam and I had been wanting to be in a team for a while and he gave me the perfect amount of lead that I needed. I knew that if I had the track to myself, I was going to be hard to pass, so it worked out well for us today and we are really happy,” the 22-year-old from Jindabyne said.

“Really happy sharing a team with Josie, we are close friends and teammates. She is riding so well I just wanted to come out and make sure that I rode as well as I could and give her every opportunity to shine, and shine she did,” the 34-year-old from the Mornington Peninsula said.

Australia has now won gold medals at World Cup and World Championship level, joining Jarryd Hughes and Belle Brockhoff from 2021.

The Australia 2 team featuring Jarryd Hughes and Mia Clift finished 13th.

Next for the snowboard cross riders is a World Cup double event in Gudauri, Georgia, on the 8th and 9th of March.

Two Aussies dominate Aerial Skiing World Cup podium in Kazakhstan 

Aerial skiers Laura Peel and Danielle Scott made it a double World Cup podium celebration in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where Laura claimed gold and Danielle bronze.

The victory completed a terrific turnaround for Laura, who qualified in last place to the 12-woman final, but then landed both triple back somersaults in the first final and then the medal round to record the 13th World Cup victory of her career.

Photo Credit: FIS Freestyle

Four Australian women - Airleigh Frigo, Abbey Willcox, Danielle and Laura - qualified for the 12-woman final.

In the first round of finals, Laura performed a lay-full-full triple somersault scoring 93.85 placing her third. Danielle scored 91.66 for her full-full double somersault to put her in fourth, Abbey made it three Aussies in the super-final in sixth place by scoring 84.96 for her full-full jump. Missing out on the super-final was Airleigh in 12th on 60.79 for her full-full.

In the medal round, Laura increased her difficult by adding an extra twist jumping full-full-full to score a massive 115.91 points in first place, to claim her fourth victory of the season. Mengtao Xu of China was second on 101.74, Danielle was third after increasing her difficulty with a double full-full (triple twisting double somersault) which scored 87.06. Abbey finished sixth jumping a double full-full scoring 65.56.

“I feel great, really relieved," Laura said. "I think I got a little lucky, I snuck into the final, so I’m just happy to be jumping.”

Narrowly missing the 12-woman final in 13th place, but matching her career best finish was rookie Elise Coleiro. In the men’s event Reilly Flanagan was 31st.

With one event remaining in the 2024-25 World Cup season, Laura has 442 points to sit on top of the World Cup standings. Her lead is 78 points ahead of Mengtao Xu, with Danielle in third 20 points back of Xu. Also in the top-10 for Australia are Abbey (sixth) and Airleigh (ninth). 

The final World Cup of the season will take place at the 2026 Olympic venue in Livigno, Italy, on the 13th of March.

Laura is in prime position to secure her third World Cup crystal globe and will do so if she can finish 12th or better in Italy.

Matt Graham pulls off dual moguls World Cup bronze

2018 Olympic silver medallist Matt Graham shared a historic moment with fellow competitors Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) and Ikuma Horishima (JPN) on the first ever mogul skiing “dad podium,” as all three skiers became first time fathers just prior to the 2024-25 season.

In the match up for the bronze medal, Matt defeated Korean Daeyoon Jung 22 to 13, his second dual mogul podium placing of the season.

“It’s great to be back on the podium. We have been knocking on the door to have the dad podium all season. Two times we have finished 1-2-4, so to get 1-2-3 is pretty awesome,” the 30-year-old said.

Photo credit: FIS Freestyle

“I am really fit and healthy at the moment, the body is feeling great, so I am looking forward to going to Livigno and checking out the (2026 Olympic) course there and then finishing off at the World Championships (in St Moritz).

Kingsbury was victorious 21-14 in the gold medal battle over Horishima.

Cooper Woods also performed well finishing in seventh place, after losing to eventual winner Kingsbury in the quarter-finals, with teammates Jackson Harvey in 19th, George Murphy T-21st and Oliver Logan T-21st.

With two World Cup events remaining, Matt Graham is ranked third overall in the combined mogul standings, sixth in single moguls and fourth in dual moguls.

Both final World Cup events of the season will take place at the future 2026 Olympic venue in Livigno, Italy, with moguls on the 11th of March and dual moguls on the 12th of March.