The Australian athletes have been arriving in Beijing as the 2022 Winter Olympics gets underway with training and competition this week.
First up in competition will be the mixed doubles curling team of Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt starting on Wednesday 2nd February in a round robin series.
The duo has qualified as Australia’s first ever curling Winter Olympic athletes. To proceed to the semi finals on Monday February 7 they will have to overcome their interrupted start to the games with Tahli Gill initially testing positive to covid, before two further negative tests. They will have six days of round robin games to qualify for semi finals.
The eight strong mogul team have started training in anticipation of their qualification this Thursday, February 3rd, with fresh snow greeting them for a white snowy start to their Olympic campaign.
While temperatures dropped below minus 10 and heavy snow blanketed the mountain, the athletes made the most of their first opportunity to ski the Olympic course.
Reigning Olympic silver medallist Matt Graham from Gosford NSW will lead the men’s team. He is competing after breaking his collar bone seven weeks ago. He has since had surgery and pins inserted, and he will be looking to ease into the competition just as he did four years ago in PyeongChang. His family in Australia will host a games party for qualifying and finals with up to 150 friends and family expected to watch on.
Matt gave the Beijing course his seal of approval today.
"It's so cool being here, having the big stadium and all the big Olympic rings on the course – putting on the Olympic bib and wearing the green and gold is pretty special," Matt said.
"That was a really good session. We had blizzard conditions out here today, it was pretty windy up top and a lot of snow coming down. When I've competed in China in the past it's usually sunny and clear skies but today was a bit different – conditions are firm and this bit of fresh snow is really nice."
Brodie Summers will compete in his third Winter Olympics and on his day can compete with the best skiers and threaten a podium position. He said he had a great time at the first Olympic training session.
"All of us are so excited, inspecting the course everyone just had a huge grin from ear to ear," Brodie said.
"The course is fast, it's tight, but super fun. The jumps have all been made really nicely and the moguls are shaped beautifully. A bit of fresh snow on the first day is absolutely perfect after a fresh course build just to smooth out the moguls a little bit, I think we're on for a pretty good week."
Cooper Woods will be making his debut and has shown good form of late with a recent best World Cup finish of 5th. Having lived and breathed moguls at Perisher for many years, he will be looking for a strong showing here in Beijing. James Matteson will compete in his second games after placing 21st in PyeongChang in 2018.
Jakara Anthony comes into the games in the best form of the women mogul skiers after a string of podiums and World Cup success this past summer. A surprise showing to make the super final at the 2018 games, look for Jakara to make the super final again here in China. She is currently ranked third in the world.
Britt Cox will be attending Winter Olympic games number four after debuting as a bright eyed 15-year-old in Vancouver. Britt has come a long way since and has tremendous experience, even if she has not shown the most consistent results in recent time. With the competitive instinct, don’t be surprised to see her knocking on the door of the podium.
"That was so much fun, I love mogul skiing!" Britt said fresh from the first hour-long session.
"The course was absolutely rippable. It's honestly a dream course to ski right now, fresh snow today is just the icing on the cake. I'm really pumped from this first session, I'm only disappointed we only got an hour on it!"
Sophie Ash has been on the world cup circuit since 2017 and will make her debut at the Beijing games. Taylah O’Neill will be contending her second games after debuting in Sochi 2014.
Qualification starts Thursday evening from 9pm AEDT in what will be night-time competitions.
