There’s exactly one year to go until the next Olympic Winter Games in Italy but no time to waste when it comes to Aussie athletes attempting to qualify for the Games.
The current crop of Australia’s winter athletes are taking it to the world, growing in depth and competing at weekly and fortnightly World Cups right now in the thick of the Northern Hemisphere winter.
As we dive sport-by-sport into our top performing athletes, five-time Winter Olympian and 2010 Aerial Skiing Olympic champion Lydia Lassila will share what she’s seeing from the athletes vying for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
Freestyle Skiing
Another year, another world-class contingent of Aussie freestyle skiers pushing the limits of the sport.
Between reigning Olympic champion Jakara Anthony (Moguls), Matt Graham (Moguls), Laura Peel (Aerials) and Danielle Scott (Aerials) they’ve collectively won 11 Crystal Globes (as the highest ranked athlete in the world at season’s end) and eight World Championship medals in their careers.
Laura is in hot form having taken out the Aerial Skiing World Cup in Lac-Beauport, Canada on Australia Day. Executing a triple twisting triple back somersault, Laura’s score of 117.19 was well clear of the 102.31 from silver medallist Meiting Chen (CHN).
“Having missed out (on an Olympic medal) in Beijing, Laura now is dominating on another level,” Lydia said.
“You see this evolution of athletes, some of them are already seasoned and are maturing again.”
Danielle, a triple Olympian in the same field as Laura, is coming off back-to-back seasons claiming the World Cup Crystal Globe and is still at the top of her game.
“She's a beautiful jumper with a style you can't replicate. She jumps big and really cleanly.
“We've got two veterans [in aerials] that could win events day in day out, and then you've got these young guns proving they are on that same kind of trajectory.”
In Mogul Skiing there’s Jakara, Australia’s sixth winter Olympic gold medallist and first since Lydia, who in 2023-24 had the greatest season ever by an Australian winter sports athlete. She won 14 World Cup events in one season, the most ever by any mogul skier in the world.
Starting this World Cup season in December with more gold in Sweden, Jakara has been off the snow and back in Australia recovering from injury.
Matt, the 2018 Olympic silver medallist in moguls, skied to the 26th World Cup podium finish of his career with dual moguls silver in Canada. Only Canadian legend Mikael Kingsbury beat Matt to gold on the day. Dual moguls has been added to the Winter Olympic program for the first time in 2026.
“Matt skied like a boss,” Lydia said. “Men’s moguls has heaps of heavy hitters from Japan, Sweden, France and the US.”
However Matt is right up there, plus emerging Australian talent is also coming through with Cooper Woods (Moguls), Charlotte Wilson (Moguls), George Murphy (Moguls), Jackson Harvey (Moguls), Abbey Willcox (Aerials), Airleigh Frigo (Aerials) and Reilly Flanagan (Aerials) making a name for themselves. Daisy Thomas, a silver medallist at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics, competes in both the Freeski Big Air and Slopestyle, is another up and comer.
Snowboard
Fifteen years after Scotty James’ Olympic debut he is far from finished. Already in 2025 he’s become the only man to win four straight X-Games snowboard halfpipe gold medals, and a week prior to that performance he won his 10th World Cup in Laax, Switzerland.
It was at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics where not only did Scotty win a silver medal in arguably the best Olympic halfpipe final of all-time, but Valentino Guseli finished sixth.
“Val wowed us at the Olympics as a 16-year-old and last year was winning events,” Lydia said.
Now a three-time Crystal Globe winner, who competes across three snowboard disciplines (Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Big Air) and holds two world records, he is on the mend from knee surgery and still aims to qualify for Milano Cortina 2026.
Two-time Olympian Emily Arthur continues to represent Australia in the women’s halfpipe and Beijing 2022 bronze medallist Tess Coady remains Australia’s best in women’s big air. More big air talent is coming through with the likes of Joshua Robertson-Hahn and Jesse Parkinson setting personal bests at World Cup events last month, plus Paige Jones made her World Cup debut.
In Snowboard Cross there’s a strong blend of youth and experience which was seen on the World Cup podium in December 2024, as 22-year-old Josie Baff and 34-year-old Cam Bolton took out silver medals in the women’s and men’s events respectively.
“We’ve got some veterans up there in Cam and Jarryd Hughes with young guns like Josie Baff, there’s a good mix,” Lydia said.
“The young ones are being inspired by the older ones and it’s really exciting because they’ve got great role models within the team.”
Curling
Australia’s first ever Olympic curlers Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt have kept up the momentum they generated from their Olympic debut and are now at a career-high ranking of no.2 in the world.
The mixed doubles pair reached the milestone last week off the back of winning the Jamaica Cup with an undefeated run.
Bobsleigh
Bree Walker, fifth at the Beijing 2022 Olympics in monobob, continues to challenge for and earn podium placings at the World Cup level. Winning silver in Switzerland last month for her 10th career World Cup medal, Bree sits third on the monobob World Cup rankings.
“She's ranked third in the world at the moment. To be doing what she's doing is quite mind boggling. Dominating in a sport that as an Australian is unheard of.”
Together with Kiara Reddingius, from a remote Western Australian town of Leonora, they are on the hunt for two-woman bobsleigh Olympic qualification.
Short Track Speed Skating
Brendan Corey has improved considerably since his 2022 Winter Olympic debut and in 2024 he became the first ever Australian to win an individual short track speed skating medal at the World Championships, claiming bronze in the 1500m.
He trains and competes on his own against nations with large national teams and programs, but if Steven Bradbury taught us anything it’s that if you give yourself a chance anything can happen.
“That's the thing about the Olympics, you got to just put yourself in the best position to win a medal and to have a chance,” Lydia said.
Luge
Townsville’s Alex Ferlazzo, who has spent more than a decade representing Australia in Luge at world events, set an Australian record by finishing fifth at the 2024 World Championships in Germany.
If he goes on to make the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Team it would be a record fourth Olympic Games by an Australian in Luge.
Figure Skating
Anastasiia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore are an historic pair, claiming Australia’s first ever medal at the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix in Halifax, Canada in October 2024.
“We feel honoured and very proud. Hopefully it’s the first of many,” the 22-year-old Hektor from Sydney said.
Cross-Country Skiing & Ski Mountaineering
Phil Bellingham had retirement plans in 2022 after competing at his third Olympic Games in Cross-Country Skiing, but picking up Ski Mountaineering has reinvigorated his career.
Now he’s on a path to qualify and compete at a fourth Olympics in not just Cross-Country Skiing, but also Ski Mountaineering.
A new generation of women’s cross-country skiers are making their way through in Phoebe Cridland, Ellen Soehol Lie and Rosie Fordham while on the men's side Lars Young Vik, Seve de Campo and Hugo Hinckfuss from the 2022 Olympic Team are all competing at the top level aiming for another Olympics.
Alpine Skiing
Dual Olympian Greta Small is coming off a month where she competed in a World Cup event at the 2026 Olympic venue for women’s alpine skiing and finished 49th in downhill and 48th in super-g. Madi Hoffman started the 2023-2024 World Cup season in style, becoming the first Australian to record World Cup points in a slalom event since 2002, but is currently sidelined with injury.
On the men’s side 2022 Olympic Team member Louis Muhlen-Schulte and 2018 Winter Olympian Harry Laidlaw are also aiming to qualify for 2026.
Skeleton
Nick Timmings has his eyes on making another Olympic Games in 2026, competing at Skeleton events around the world in an effort to meet the world ranking qualification cut-off.
For more on the athletes’ Olympic qualification journey head to the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia.
Au revoir Paris, ciao Milano Cortina: Get ready for the next Winter Olympics
With the dust settled on the Australian Olympic Team’s record-breaking performance at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy is fast approaching across the city of Milan and the slopes of Cortina.
