Aussie athletes delivered four 2025 World Championship medals this week - gold, silver and two bronze - led by Australia’s most prolific winter World Championship winner Scotty James topping the podium for a record fourth time.
James wins historic fourth World Championship snowboard halfpipe gold medal in Switzerland
Snowboarder Scotty James has won an incredible fourth career halfpipe World Championship gold medal in St Mortiz-Engadin, Switzerland, making him the most successful World Championships snowboard halfpipe rider in history.
In the best of two run final in blizzard conditions, Scotty opened with a score 89.50 for the highest scoring run of the round, leading Japanese riders Yuto Totsuka on 88.75 in second place and Ruka Hirano third on 88.50.
In the final run, Scotty performed the same tricks but improved his execution and landings to score a huge 95 points. His run including a switch McTwist Japan grab, cab double cork 1080 with grab, frontside double cork 1260 with grab, backside double cork 1080 with grab and switch backside double cork 1260 with grab.
After Scotty’s final run the two Japanese riders were the only competitors left to go. They both increased their score from the first run, but it wasn’t enough to catch Scotty, with Hirano second on 92.25 and Totsuka third on 92 points.
“Coming out this week it was such a challenge, with the weather and to ride at this level is already so high,” the 30-year-old from Warrandyte in Victoria said.
“Halfpipe is a scary sport and it gets even scary when conditions are tough.
“I'm really pumped and felt like I had to be resilient today, so I’m stoked.”
The new dad’s win was extra special with his wife and son there in Switzerland to celebrate.
It adds to a proud Australian history at the Halfpipe World Championships, as an Australian has won a medal at each of the last six editions of the event dating back to 2013.
Although at the last World Championships in 2023 Scotty had a day he’d like to forget, finishing 5th, and victory here helps immensely. Valentino Guseli claimed silver at the 2023 World Championships to keep the Australian streak alive.
“The 2023 World Championships was not a good day for me, I was pretty disappointed with my outcome and I wanted to make a statement for myself personally, that I wanted to come back and finish at the top, to have won four world titles… again I'm pinching myself.”
Scotty also has the highest number of World Championship wins among Australian winter sports athletes.
Bolton and Clift combine for snowboard cross mixed team World Championships silver
Cameron Bolton and Mia Clift have raced to silver at the Snowboard Cross World Championships in the mixed team event, also in St Moritz-Engadin, Switzerland, making Australia the only nation to have won a gold and silver medal in this event at the World Championships.
For Mia, 20, it’s her first international medal and for Cameron, 34, it’s the first World Championship medal he’s won in his career.
Photo credit: Chris Hocking
Advancing from their quarter-final round to the semis in second place, in the semis Mia and Cameron finished third – in the elimination zone – but were advanced to the big final after a controversial penalty for contact was given to female USA 1 team rider Acy Craig who had originally crossed the line in second, eliminating them from the competition.
In the big final Mia and Cameron faced two French teams and Switzerland 1. At the halfway mark, after the male riders finished the course, Australia was in third spot and 0.54 seconds behind France 2.
Mia quickly made up the 0.54 second differential in a very impressive ride under pressure, battling the two French teams which featured the world’s number two and three ranked female riders. The Aussie passed France 2 by the halfway point of the course and in a tight battle with France 1 which saw both teams exchange the lead in the final section. Julia Pereira De Sousa of France 1 crossed the line first, 0.20 seconds ahead of Mia, and Switzerland 1 finished third.
The Australia 1 team featuring Josie Baff and Adam Lambert finished sixth.
Next for the snowboard cross athletes is the final World Cup of the year in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, where a double event will take place on 6th and 7th of April.
Danielle Scott claims second consecutive World Championships medal
For the first time in her career, Danielle Scott has achieved an aerial skiing medal at back-to-back World Championships with bronze in St Mortiz, Switzerland.
Competing in warm conditions at the iconic Swiss resort, Danielle was one of three Australian women competing in the best-of-two-jump opening round of finals. She landed two great jumps to advance to the top-six super final in second place, with her best score of 98.34 from her double full-full triple twisting double somersault.
Current World Cup champion and two-time world champion Laura Peel was very unlucky to miss out on the super final in seventh place, after touching a hand on landing on both her triple somersault jumps. Airliegh Frigo, was behind Laura in eighth, landing both jumps with a best score of 79.06 on her full-full.
In the super final Danielle again put down another great score on her double full-full triple twisting double somersault, scoring 96.93 points to finish in third place.
“So happy, I literally did everything I could, every jump today was on the money” the 35-year-old from NSW said.
It’s the fourth time she’s stood on the podium at the World Championships, dating back to her debut at the 2013 World Championships where she also won bronze.
Finishing ahead of Danielle was American Kaila Kuhn who claimed the first victory of her career scoring 105.13 with Mengtao Xu of China in second on 99.16.
“Not doing triple somersaults, I was really focused on myself and maximising those points and it did pay off,” Danielle said.
“This season has been a special one, the team around us has really bonded and that strength is showing, there is a lot of confidence in that and for me it’s about getting the speeds right, so thanks to the team.
“I am so excited for the next 12 months. It’s been a bit of a rough run for me, I did barely any training heading into this season due to a couple of personal reasons, but my dad’s fighting, he’s doing well now, I dedicate this medal to him.”
Matt Graham prevails with courageous moguls bronze medal at World Championships
Matt Graham claimed Australia’s first medal at the 2025 FIS Freestyle and Snowboard World Championships, winning bronze in a courageous performance in St Moritz, where three of the top four men suffered heavy crashes in a wild semi-final round of skiing.
Figure skating pair 9th at World Championships
Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore have together finished inside the top 10 at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships for a third consecutive year, this time in Boston, USA.
Starting with their short program performance they scored 65.73 to qualify 8th for the free skate round.
They picked up 122.51 points from their free skate program which took Anastasia and Hektor’s point total to 188.24 for 9th place, behind Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko’s (HUN) 193.29 in eighth. Japan's Rki Miura and Ryuichi Kihara became world champions with their score of 219.79.
Ice dancers Harris and Chan 19th in World Championships
Holly Harris and Jason Chan were also in Boston, taking on the world’s best ice dancers. They finished 19th with a combined score of 174.78.
Boosted by Anastasia and Hektor proudly cheering the pair on from the stands, their rhythm dance (69.84) sent them through to the 20-pair final in 18th position.
The free dance netted them 104.94 from the judges, which meant Finland’s Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis vaulted them and many other pairs in the standings after recording the seventh-best free dance routine (120.86) in the final.
