Australia's Winter Olympic Gold Medallists

Known as the ‘Sunburnt Country’, Australia isn’t particularly renowned for its winter sports.

Our picturesque coastlines and expansive countryside have seen our nation excel at the Summer Olympics for over a century. But when it comes to the ice and slopes of the Winter Games, our incredible athletes have managed to hold their own against nations further from the equator, securing an impressive five gold medals since we first competed at the 1936 Winter Games.

To celebrate the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, here is the exclusive club of Australia’s Winter Olympic Gold Medallists.

The epitome of the underdog story, Steven Bradbury’s gold medal in the 1000m short track speed skating at the 2002 Salt Lake City games was the very first, and truly the most memorable Australian Winter Olympic gold medal. Made even more miraculous by overcoming two potentially career and life threatening injuries in the eight years prior to the 2002 Winter Games, Bradbury’s tactic of sitting back and waiting for his desperate competitors to trip each other up vying for front position etched himself in Aussie sport folklore, where any unlikely come-from-behind victory will forever be known as ‘doing a Bradbury'.

Australia’s second ever gold medal also came at the 2002 Salt Lake City games, this time from freestyle skier Alisa Camplin. Her tale of victory is another underdog story, with her Aussie compatriot Jacqui Cooper the favourite to win heading into their event. On top of this, Camplin, who went into the games sore after a training accident a few weeks prior, was informed by a doctor at the games that both her ankles were in fact fractured. Nevertheless, she pushed through the pain, performing a pair of perfect triple twisting, double backflip jumps to secure the gold in front of her Mum and Sister who hid behind an Aussie flag in the crowd after Camplin told them not to come and be a distraction. A picture of Camplin sporting her medal featured on an Australia Post 45c stamp commemorating Australia’s sporting heroes the week following her victory.

Australia would have to wait until the 2006 Torino Games for their next gold medal, where mogul skier Dale Begg-Smith would claim the shiny prize. The Canadian-born athlete went into the 2006 Torino games in impeccable form, having won three consecutive world cup rounds and ranking at number one in the world for his discipline. With the last run of the final, Begg-Smith mesmerised the crowd with his turns and airs, and at 21 years old, he became the youngest to ever win an Olympic gold medal in freestyle mogul skiing.

Already a rising star of her sport, young snowboarding gun Torah Bright was selected as the flag bearer for the 2010 Vancouver games. Despite suffering two concussions while training in the lead up to her event, Bright was able to qualify as the top ranked competitor in the halfpipe category. After crashing out in her first run of the final and sitting in dead last, Bright pulled off a 540 McTwist, a trick typically only seen in the Men’s competition, and completed a flawless run to claim Australia’s fourth ever Winter Olympic gold medal.

Australia’s last Winter Olympics gold medal was also won at the 2010 Vancouver games, this time earned by aerial skier Lydia Lassila. It was a rocky road to Olympic glory for Lassila having twice ruptured her ACL in the lead up to the 2006 Torino Games, but at the age of 24 she vowed to keep pushing and go for gold in 2010. Going into Vancouver as the world number one and Australia’s most likely medal winner, there was quite a lot of pressure on Lassila to perform. After finishing second in her first jump of the final, Lassila rose above her competitors both literally and on the leaderboard to claim Australia’s fifth ever gold medal, and second in the women’s aerial skiing event.

44 of our finest athletes will be heading over to China to compete, with the team having the highest female representation of any team Australia has ever sent to a winter games. With the 2022 Beijing Games fast approaching (4 February 2022 - 20 February 2022), the question remains… Who will our next gold medal heroes be?

Matt Graham scored a silver medal in the mogul skiing competition at the 2018 PyeongChang games, and will be looking to go one better in Beijing and Laura Peel is shaping as the favourite in the women’s aerial skiing after taking out the 2021 world championship. Both competing in their fourth games, Britt Cox and Scotty James will be looking to come home with gold in their respective events (mogul skiing for Cox and halfpipe snowboarding for James), with Cox bouncing back after a near career ending injury in 2019 and James fresh off a gold medal at the X Games. Fellow Mogul Skier Jakara Anthony is another Gold medal hopeful for Australia, who's finish of 4th at the 2018 PyeongChang Games was the highest finish for a female Aussie in that event. Other Aussie competitors who will make history regardless of their finish are Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt, who will represent Australia for the very first time in mixed doubles Curling.

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