Olympic champion happy to be home

JAKARA Anthony is enjoying being back at home in Barwon Heads, but will not fully celebrate her triumph at the Winter Olympics until the moguls season is over.

The 23-year-old broke Australia’s 12-year gold medal drought with a commanding performance throughout qualifying and the finals at the 2022 Games in Beijing.

Anthony started ski school full-time in grade 6 and said she began with high ambitions for how far she could go in the sport.

“At that point, I was set on exactly what I have just been able to achieve.

“From very young, I had big dreams and big goals, and to be living those out is what everyone dreams of; it’s insane.”

She had a breakout season in 2018-2019 when she established herself as one of the world’s best with a second place at the 2019 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships in Utah, following this up with a fourth place at Almaty in 2021, and was Australia’s highest placed female mogul skier in her first Winter Games, narrowly finishing fourth in Pyeongchang.

Anthony entered Beijing as one of the favourites and dominated the women’s moguls from start to finish, leading the two-day competition after every round and comfortably winning the super final.

“That was such a phenomenal feeling,” she said.

“I was so proud of my (final) run anyway, I was going to be happy, no matter what because I felt like I came out and skied the way I knew I was capable of and that was really all I could ask of myself.

“So to do that and have that earn me the gold medal was just the best feeling in the world.”

Despite her gold medal in Beijing, Anthony will reset her focus to the World Cup tour, with the final two events in Italy and France coming up in March.

“I don’t think it will ever be mission accomplished for me, I want to continue to push the sport and keep progressing myself as far as I can. I’d like to take more of a mastery approach to my sporting pursuits and the results just come as a result of that,” she said.

“Obviously, a gold medal was a big ambition of mine and to have finally achieved that is so phenomenal, but it doesn’t change anything about my motivation to want to improve in the sport; it just fuels it more.”

She said it was “so nice” to be home after three months away.

“To be coming home as well with a gold medal and being able to share my success with all the people who have played such a big role in getting me there – this medal is as much theirs as it is mine.

“I went up to get icecream last night and I got recognised, which is pretty wild; it’s a weird feeling.

“And it’s pretty wild to see my face on a stamp (Australia Post released them on Wednesday last week) – I was blown away when someone told me that was happening.

“For me, it’s just so great to be able to share it with my family, that’s the main thing right now, then focusing on getting back on tour, and then when I get back from that, I think there’ll be pretty big celebrations then.”