By Philip O’Connor
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) – Australia’s freestyle skiing team is gearing up for more moguls medals in Beijing after a hugely successful 2018 Games that resulted in a silver medal for Matt Graham and fourth and fifth place in the women’s competition.
Graham has recovered from a broken collarbone in time to take part, and Jakara Anthony comes into the Games ranked third in the world with her sights set on making the podium after snagging fourth in 2018.
“Pyeongchang was incredible for me to come over the fourth place, it was a personal best result at the time for me,” she told a media conference a day after her first test of the Olympic course.
“I think what’s going to make the difference now is all the work that I’ve done in that past four years, really focusing on turning weaknesses into strengths and giving myself every opportunity possible to set up, to give myself the chance to do the run I know I can do here,” she added.
The team trained on Sunday night as heavy snow fell in Zhangjiakou and Britt Cox, who finished fifth in Pyeongchang, said she was delighted with the set-up.
“It was incredibly exciting to get on the course last night and have our first training session, I was amazed at the training facility. The course was impeccable and it was basically a dream course to ski,” she told reporters.
“We basically only had an hour of training and I just tried to fit in as many runs as I possibly could, because I was having so much fun out there,” she added.
The moguls competitions at the Beijing Games get underway on Saturday with the men’s moguls, and the women are in action on Sunday.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
