Australia’s youngest competitors flashed their potential and recorded some remarkable results in the process. Many of them contributed to a record-equalling 15 top-10 finishes for the Australian Team at a Winter Olympics, which was first achieved at Sochi 2014.

This is the young brigade setting themselves up for a run at Milano-Cortina 2026.

Jakara Anthony

Look no further than Jakara Anthony to start this list. The 23-year-old from Barwon Heads in Victoria won gold for Australia in the women’s moguls – our first winter Olympic champion in 12 years.

She separated herself from the competition, having laid down the best run out of all the competitors in qualification one, final one, final two and final three. Her highest scoring run, 83.75, came in qualifying and set the tone for the competition.

Jakara had a splendid 2021-22 moguls World Cup season, winning medals at eight of the nine events (2x gold, 3x silver, 3x bronze).

She raised her game from her Olympic debut at PyeongChang 2018, where Jakara just missed finishing with a medal in fourth place.

Now back in Victoria for some family time, Jakara is the world no.1 in dual moguls and world no.3 in moguls.

Tess Coady

Speaking of medallists, Tess Coady got Australia’s Beijing 2022 campaign off to a flying start.

On day two of the Games she secured a bronze medal in the women’s snowboard slopestyle in what was a wonderful turnaround, after her PyeongChang 2018 experience was cut short due to an ACL injury in training on the Olympic course.

Read more about Tess Coady’s four-year fightback.

At 21 years-old Tess is Australia’s youngest-ever Winter Olympic medallist and the bronze became our first Olympic medal in the snowboard slopestyle competition.

She qualified for the final in seventh position and saved her best until last, scoring 84.15 in final three.

Another Victorian who has returned home from Beijing, Tess has since revealed she competed at Beijing 2022 with a fractured ankle.

“I did it in my last run of practice before qualies and I was going back up the lift and I was like ‘this isn’t going to happen again,’ so I just bit my lip before I dropped in so it would be less painful,” Tess said.

“The Australian medical team just went to the end of the earth to help get me all good for finals.”

It’s not just the slopestyle where she is making her mark. Despite the fractured ankle Tess entered the women’s snowboard big air. Once again she qualified for a final in seventh, this time finishing ninth overall.

Tess is in a share of fourth in the women’s slopestyle world rankings after she won gold at the prestigious Laax Open in January.

Valentino Guseli

Australia’s youngest athlete at Beijing 2022, 16-year-old Valentino Guseli has brought a wow factor to the men’s snowboard halfpipe.

He was fifth best in Beijing 2022 qualifying with a score of 85.75 and comfortably proceeded to the final. Valentino showed great consistency to post three clean and strong runs in the final. He earned a strong score of 75.75 to start, then posted back-to-back scores of 79.75 to close the competition in sixth place.

The performance made Valentino the only Australian ever under 18 years of age to crack the top-10 in any sport at the Winter Olympics.

He has done so much in such little time. As a 15-year-old last year, Valentino beat Olympians and World Champions in his World Cup debut to qualify first for the finals. He is also the current world record holder for air in a halfpipe, going 7.3m high to surpass snowboard legend Shaun White’s (USA) 7m mark from 2010.

By contrast Scotty James was a 15-year-old in his first Olympics at Vancouver 2010, the youngest male athlete from any nation to compete at the Olympic Winter Games in 50 years, and finished in 21st place.

Valentino of ‘Val Airlines’ has said he wants to become known for his innovation and creativity, which could mean we’re just at the being of a long career in snowboard halfpipe.

Cooper Woods

What we saw from Cooper Woods at Beijing 2022 was a fast acceleration in his climb towards the top echelon of men’s mogul skiing.

The 21-year-old from Pambula Beach on the NSW South Coast joined Dale Begg-Smith and Matt Graham as the only Australian men to make an Olympic moguls super final.

Cooper’s best score of the night came in the super final, 78.88, after working his way up through last chance qualifying. That score was 0.56 of a point away from fourth place and 2.60 points off a bronze medal.

He comes from a unique upbringing with his mother Katrina Woods an Australian aerial skier and uncle Peter Topalovic a legendary Perisher and Australian moguls coach.

Read more about Cooper’s journey.

His start to 2022 was hot, recording three top-11 finishes before the Olympics. The best of Cooper’s results, 5th on day one of a double header event at Deer Valley (USA), set a new career best.

Tahli Gill & Dean Hewitt

Our first ever Curlers representing Australia at the Olympic Games, Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt found their feet and put on a show.

While they had an agonising wait for their first win at the Olympics, when they did finally get it (9-6 against Switzerland – the PyeongChang 2018 mixed doubles silver medallists) they backed it up with a win over Canada - the defending Olympic champions.

Tahli is 22 years-old and was the youngest mixed doubles curler at Beijing 2022, while Dean is 27. Both are considered young in Curling as it’s common for curlers to compete at the highest level into their late 30s and for some beyond.

One of their coaches that helped the pair prepare for the Olympics, Canada’s John Morris, competed at Beijing 2022 as a 43-year-old and won mixed doubles gold at PyeongChang 2018.

He had nothing but praise for Tahli’s abilities.

“Tahli’s been so impressive this year, she’s got the eye of the tiger,” Morris said.

“For someone who has pretty much trained on hockey arena ice for six or seven years, it’s amazing what she can do now.”

Tahli and Dean earned Australia one of only 10 spots at the Olympics in mixed doubles, having won all seven of their matches at an Olympic qualifying event in the Netherlands to secure one of the final two Beijing 2022 quotas.

Sophie & Gabi Ash

Beijing 2022 was a double delight for the Ash family, as Gabi and Sophie made their Olympic debut in freestyle skiing.

Sophie outperformed her moguls World Cup ranking (world no.24) by a considerable margin, as she made the first final and placed 16th. The 25-year-old scored 70.47 in the final.

Gabi, 23, was unlucky to miss out on qualifying for the finals. She executed two strong jumps, her best scoring 80.04, which was 1.54 points short of a spot in the finals.

Both women completed all of their runs and jumps.

It will be exciting to see how another four years of training and competition can set these athletes up for the next Olympics.