It has been an extraordinary 12 months for Jakara Anthony.
Twelve months ago, Anthony kicked off Australia’s most successful ever Winter Olympic Games by winning one of Australia’s four medals in Beijing.
Anthony was on fire that night, claiming Australia’s sixth-ever Winter Games gold medal on what was Australia’s own Super Sunday, following Tess Coady’s snowboard slopestyle bronze.
As Australia’s only gold medallist from those Games though, Anthony has gone from the relative anonymity most winter sports athletes enjoy between Olympic cycles to becoming seriously hot property.
An Olympic gold medal will do that.
Since her eye-catching performance on the slopes of the Zhangjiakou Genting Snow Park, Anthony has popped up as a guest at the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix, the Bells Beach leg of the World Surf League and even slid down the AFL’s Big Freeze slide at the MCG.
It’s a far cry from the long nights and freezing temperatures of the Australian moguls team’s training base in Ruka, Finland, just south of the Arctic circle.
But for Anthony, the snow is where she feels most comfortable.
“It’s not so bad having to come back to training, it’s kinda when things quieten down,” Anthony told ABC Sport from her training base in Ruka, Finland, before the World Cup event in Quebec at Val Saint Come.
“I was never in the sport to try and get a profile, that’s just been a cool little bonus that’s come off the back of the Olympics.
“I’ve gotten some really cool opportunities, gotten to meet some very cool people, inspire some people.
“It’s been a pretty wild year.”
It has been a memorable year but, 12 months on from that bitterly cold night in Zhangjiakou, it seems as though Anthony is just getting started.
This season, the 24-year-old won all three moguls events events before the Christmas break, claiming wins in Finland, Sweden and France.
She then finished second last weekend in Canada before claiming a remarkable fourth victory of the season at Deer Valley to wrap up a comprehensive victory in the overall FIS World Cup standings with one round still to go and with it, the moguls crystal globe for season 2023.
Prior to this season, Anthony had only won three individual moguls events at World Cup level or higher — including her Olympic crown.
She has, though, stood on the other steps of the podium 13 times and has eight other podiums on the dual moguls circuit, a degree of consistency that earned her a first crystal globe as the overall FIS World Cup champion last year.
So what has changed for Anthony to make that leap from key contender to earning a bucket full of gold on every visit to Europe’s snow fields?
“I don’t think that the Olympic medal is what makes a difference,” Anthony said with a smile.
“I think it’s all the work that myself and my team have put in to developing the skills that gave me the opportunity to win that medal.
“They’ve also given me the opportunity to go and compete well in these other events too.”
Australia ‘punches above its weight’ on snow
The Australian winter sport scene is currently enjoying a golden era.
As was the case in Beijing, Anthony is the standard bearer, but her success is far from isolated.
As Anthony herself put it: “Australian winter sports are absolutely crashing it at the moment.”
Before Christmas, Aussies recorded victories in aerials, snowboard cross, half pipe and big air events.
Since then, Val Guseli has won the crystal globe as FIS snowboard Big Air World Cup winner, Alex Ferlazzo became the first Australian to win a Nations Cup luge event, Bree Walker and Sarah Blizzard scored a career best fifth in the two-women bobsled event at Winterberg and Ben Tudhope has claimed victories in the ParaAlpine World Cup.
Australia then enjoyed a hugely successful X-Games, claiming three medals in Aspen.
“Across the board we’ve had great results across multiple disciplines,” said Olympic silver medallist Matt Graham, who has also stood on the podium this season, recovering his best form after injury cruelled his chances in Beijing.
“The [moguls] team’s doing great, obviously Jakara being the stand-out.
“Jackson Harvey, [it’s] his first year on tour and he’s got three finals, and obviously [Olympic finalist] Cooper Woods is doing well as well.
“It’s exciting times for Australian winter sports but I think we just have really good systems in Australia that are put in place, through the Australia Winter Institute, to really just help the team succeed and get the most out of the talent we have.
“Obviously we’re a small talent pool relative to the bigger nations, but we definitely punch above our weight as far as how well we can do.
“We have multiple medal contenders in multiple sports — that’s pretty uncommon in in our discipline, let alone from a sun-drenched nation like Australia.”
Graham particularly praised Perisher for building “the longest and probably the hardest [moguls] course in the world” for Aussie athletes to train on.
Anthony agreed, saying innovations such as the new airbag facility at the National Snowsports Training Facility in Jindabyne would take Australia’s freestyle skiers from strength to strength.
“I know for moguls in particular, and aerials, we actually have great facilities in Australia,” Anthony said.
“The new airbag facility and all that stuff is going to help continue to keep the talent in our sport for years to come so it will be exciting to see where everything will progress from.
“We’re at such a strong point right now and we’re getting all these facilities to help the future so that will be really exciting to see what happens there.”
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