Jakara Anthony has opened up about how a so-called “failure” – and her fans – fuelled her history-making win at the Winter Olympics.
In her first major interview since becoming Australia’s most successful Winter Olympian, Anthony reflects: “Elite sport is all about winning. You’re at a competition like the Olympics to try to win.
“And when that doesn’t go to plan … that’s a tough pill to swallow,” she told Stellar, in a new cover story out today.
“It was very easy for people to turn around and call it a failure or underperformance.
“But I didn’t see any of that. I had so many people remind me that I’d gone out there and tried my best.”
Anthony finished eighth in the women’s individual moguls event at this year’s Winter Olympics, where she was the favourite to win given she was the reigning champion.
She bounced back days later to claim gold and cement her legacy as the country’s most successful winter athlete.
Speaking to Stellar, Anthony – who was born in Cairns and took up skiing as a young girl while living in Mt Buller, Victoria – still marvels at her success in the sport.
“None of it adds up,” Anthony confesses.
“Especially when you add in my coach, Pete McNeil [a highly successful Australian mogul trainer], who was my first club coach at Mt Buller when I went through the program, so I’ve worked with him, on and off, since I was 12.
“None of it should have happened, but it ended up [this way] somehow.
“I’ve definitely had those moments where I think, ‘Why am I doing this?’
“But it’s for the love of the sport. I’m such a perfectionist and I have so many things I want to achieve in the sport outside of results.
“And I know I’m capable of doing it.”
Read the full interview and see the cover shoot with Jakara Anthony in a new issue of Stellar. It’s out today via The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA).
For more from Stellar, click here.
