It’s day nine of the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, South Korea and the Aussie team continues to make their presence known with free skier Daisy Thomas taking Australia’s third medal of the games in the Big Air event today.
Thomas led the field after the first of three runs after laying down a 91 point run. Flora Tabanelli from Italy took the lead with 92.5 on her second run and bronze went to Muriel Mohr of Germany.
Daisy cleanly executed two of her three jumps, a left double 10 safety and a switch left bio 9 safety. The 16-year-old, who made her World Cup debut in December last year, said she was happy to land on the podium after her fifth place finish in slopestyle.
“I came here with the goal of getting on the podium, I’ve had the Youth Olympic medal on my phone’s home screen for over a year now, and to now have the medal in my hands feels so surreal!” Daisy said.
“I was pretty close to the podium in slopestyle, so heading into this morning I was pretty confident but also pretty excited and determined to get on the podium.”
The silver comes off the back of two other medals won by Team Australia in the Winter Youth Olympic Games so far.
Abbey Wilson and William Martin won Australia’s first medal of the games and our first ever Winter Youth Olympic Games (WYOG) snowboard cross teams medal, claiming bronze in the event. It was a tight race as the Aussie team fought it out for silver with France claiming it by a mere 0.26 seconds.
It was especially joyous for Jindabyone local Wilson, missed out on the podium at the women’s snowboard cross event the day before, coming fourth.
“There are no words for it, it feels amazing to win this medal,” Abbey said after taking bronze.
“I was over the moon with my results yesterday, I just came out and tried to put myself in the same position and ended up with a bronze, so I am stoked.”
“As soon as I saw we had a good shot at a podium in the big final, only a second behind France after Will finished his race, I just went for it. Going second is always hard, I felt a bit of pressure, but I just fought to the bottom and to cross that finish line was amazing.”
Fellow Jindabyne local, Lottie Lodge also claimed a podium finish, this time silver for dual moguls. The event marked the first time dual moguls has been on the WYOG program.
The 17-year-old was in strong form through the round robin heats, winning three of her four duals to progress through to the semi-finals where she then defeated USA’s team dual bronze medallist Abby McLarnon.
Coming up against USA World Cup skier Elizabeth Lemley in the big final, Lottie put down her best run of the day to claim silver.
“I was so surprised when I beat Abby in the semi-final, because she is a great skier, but so stoked at the same time,” Lottie said after taking the silver.
“I was so excited to ski against (Elizabeth) Lemley in the big final, it was so much fun.”
“I came into today just wanting to ski consistently and do the same runs I was doing in training, that is what I was focusing on in the start gate. I also just wanted to go out there and do my own run, not worry about what the person next to me was doing, and I think I did that.”
