“A little bit of everything. I’ve been building Lego, watching Grey’s Anatomy, got a puzzle I’m doing – anything not to do with mobile skiing,” she said. “I’m at the end of season eight right now. McDreamy’s still alive. No spoilers, I’ve watched it through. This is the third time around.”
Jakara Anthony after winning gold in Beijing.Credit: Maddie Meyer/ Getty Images
Unlike when she won gold in Beijing four years ago, Anthony has friends and family in the Italian Alps with her, not to mention a fairly sizeable crew of unrelated supporters. About a dozen of them were rocking custom ice hockey-style jerseys that read ‘Australia’ on the front and ‘Jakara’ on the back.
“I couldn’t tell you how many there are. It’s quite a lot, though, and they’re definitely cheering the loudest, which is very cool. I could hear them up the top,” she said. “We don’t get many Aussies at our events because it’s so far to travel. It’s a lot of their first time to Europe, one of my friends’ first time flying overseas.”
The other Australians in the women’s moguls, first-time Olympians Emma Bosco and Charlotte Wilson, will get a second crack at joining Anthony in the finals after finishing 17th and 28th respectively.
In the men’s qualifiers, Matt Graham also sealed his spot in Thursday’s final round by finishing in 10th place, just 0.46 points ahead of the automatic threshold.
Matt Graham scraped through to qualify for the final.Credit: Getty Images
Graham won the silver medal in this event at the 2018 Winter Olympics but came 29th in Beijing four years ago, competing through the pain of a broken collarbone he suffered just two months out.
Though he now has a shot at redemption, in the form of another medal, the 31-year-old was not fully satisfied with his performance.
“Not my best,” he said.
“I had really good training this morning, just got a little bit out of time and out of rhythm in the middle section and then a little bit hung up on the last turn into the bottom air … but a lot of room to improve, and I’ll be chasing not from the front, but probably from the mid-pack.”
Aussie trio Cooper Woods (15th), Harvey Jackson (23rd) and George Murphy (26th), meanwhile, will have to get through the second qualification round on Thursday morning.
Jackson held back tears as he spoke of his pride in wearing a green and gold uniform, doing so in an American twang; he grew up in Colorado, where his father is from, but his mother is from Melbourne, and he relocated to Australia in 2022 to pursue his World Cup dreams.
Towards the end of the following year, he ruptured his ACL, keeping him out of action for all of 2024.
“It feels really good to be able to call myself an Olympian, finally,” Jackson said.
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“It means a lot. It’s been a journey. It’s something I’ve obviously dreamed of for a long time. I think the tough times and tribulations make it all the more sweeter. It feels really good. It’s the proudest moment of my life so far.
“My immediate family is over here. I have a good group of friends as well. My parents haven’t watched me ski in person for a while. This one is obviously pretty significant and special.”
Harvey, 23, did not have to look far for inspiration through those difficult 14 months on the sidelines; he mentioned Graham’s post-Beijing journey and ultramarathon runner Nedd Brockmann as two examples he was trying to follow.
“I read his book right before I injured my knee and really got into his story and his approach,” he said of Brockmann. “He’s kind of an Aussie icon now – a bit of a different approach, different story, obviously. His passion and grit and perseverance … he was savage. That was a pretty cool one to follow.”
The Winter Olympic Games will be broadcast on the 9Network, 9Now and Stan Sport.
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