Australia’s golden Games group just proved we can win in winter, too. Now they need help

Cooper Woods and Danielle Scott were beaming as they led a triumphant Australian team on a lap of honour on the final day of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

The contrast between the past, present and future for the Australian Olympic team was apparent at the glittering farewell to Milan-Cortina.

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The 41-strong Australian contingent joined their Olympic peers in a celebratory ceremony in the ancient Verona Arena which dates to the Roman Empire and was completed in 30AD.

But resplendent in gold puffer jackets, the Aussies looked every bit the modern athletes they are as they celebrated the nation’s most successful Winter Olympics performance.

Among those marching were talents including Indra Brown, a teenage sensation who fell narrowly short of clinching a medal in the final Olympics event but shapes as a star of the future.

Her performance is part of the reason Alisa Camplin, the Australian team Chef de Mission and a gold medallist in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake, is optimistic for what is to come for our winter Olympians after their record-breaking deeds in Cortina.

But in a call to arms, she urged the peak interest bodies in Australia including the Federal Government to throw more support behind a team that gave Aussies plenty to cheer about.

“The Team of 2026 will never be forgotten for humbly rewriting the history books,” she said.

“They have lifted the baseline and set a new standard for what is possible when everyone unites and works together as one. These athletes have been sensational role models, providing lessons for all of us.

“They’ve shown that you become a better person through taking on life, pushing boundaries and being fearless in the face of both challenge and opportunity.”

A PODIUM PERFORMANCE

After an extraordinary performance at the summer Games in Paris in 2024 when finishing in fourth overall with 18 gold medals, the Aussie winter Olympians delivered in Cortina, even if finishing ten spots lower.

Jakara Anthony became the first Australian to win two gold medals in the Winter Olympics and the first ever dual-moguls champion with another magnificent performance.

Woods clinched Australia’s first medal of this Games with a golden run in the men’s moguls to become just the seventh Aussie to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics.

Snowboarder Josie Baff later made it eight when edging two Olympic champions in a dramatic run to secure a career-defining moment and Australia’s third gold, which matched the entire output from the four games between 2010 and 2022.

At that stage the Aussies sat ahead of Canada, a Winter Olympics heavyweight, and were raising eyebrows as international fans began to realise there is far more to the land downunder than sunshine and sandy beaches.

The gold medal rush slowed but the gongs kept coming, with legend Scotty James becoming the first Aussie to win three individual medals with silver in the snowboard halfpipe.

Competing in her fourth Olympics, Scott was superb when winning a silver medal in the women’s aerials while Matt Graham won his second Olympic medal with a bronze in the men’s dual moguls event.

The Aussies, which posted 20 Top 10 results overall, ultimately finished 14th on a medal table led by Norway, which claimed 18 golds and 41 medals overall.

Kudos goes to The New York Times which, in a nod to the United States overwhelming desire to finish first in everything regardless of reality, found a way to make this happen.

The USA have always had a curious habit of using overall medals, rather than the traditional method of gold medals, when ranking the position of nations in Olympics tables.

But even that method was not enough to rank the Americans first in Cortina, with Norway winning 41 medals in total compared to the USA’s 33, with 12 of them gold.

In an article breaking down the medal tallies in a number of ways, The NYT instead counted the number of athletes heading home with gold … among other different breakdowns.

After their successes in ice hockey, the USA could proudly claim to have 64 athletes who are gold medallists in what would be a dominant triumph … if counted that way.

THE FRENCH ALPS AND BEYOND

As per Olympics tradition, while hailing the superb performance of this year’s crop of Australian athletes, Camplin was on the front foot with a view to the future.

She hailed the deeds of the 2026 team to deliver on a “shoe string budget” and said even better results would come in the future if funding for winter sports is increased.

“We’ve probably been, in winter sport, disproportionately funded,” she said in Livigno on Saturday.

“Even though we’re very grateful for the ongoing funding we’ve had, I think there’s just a real opportunity to equalise that a little. We can get to the next level and there’ll be just more Australians that can chase that dream.”

The challenge for Camplin and others pushing the Winter Olympics dream is that it is a crowded market when it comes to funding sports, particularly in Australia.

After all, in just six years the Aussies will hold an Olympics for the third time when Brisbane joins Sydney (2000) and Melbourne (1956) as the host of the summer games.

It is indisputable Queensland will receive preferential funding treatment given the big stadium build at Victoria Park and the traditional commitment from all hosts to ensure the host nation’s athletes are in the best position possible to succeed.

But Camplin is adamant every dollar will count as Australia seeks to continue the momentum that sees its athletes starring in winter events each year towards France in 2030.

“I think we have been punching above our weight and we haven’t had, perhaps, the funding we might have deserved along the way,” she said.

“But we’ve shown that we’ve made every dollar count and if we can have more philanthropic support and invest more in coaches … that will help us continue to expand across all sports.”

As a starting point, Camplin would love to see a centre for curling excellence and an ice push start for Australian sliders built to assist athletes in those sports succeed.

It is worth noting these facilities do not have to be built in alpine areas but can be centred in locations where there is greater access for all types of athletes.

“As a nation, we were bold enough to build the Geoff Henke Olympic Winter Training Centre in Queensland and the National Snow Sports Training Centre in Jindabyne,” she said.

“Two-thirds of our medallists trained on the Brisbane Water Jump and Dani Scott is the first to tell you that it extended her career. These were the game-changing decisions and pivotal investments that will enable generations of kids to try winter sports and to grow in the future.”

STARS OF THE FUTURE

Indra Brown, Australia’s final competitor in a successful Olympics, finished just short of producing a podium performance when fifth in the women’s halfpipe.

But it served as another pointer to have optimism towards the next Winter Olympics in the French Alps in four years time.

The Melburnian is only 16 and, touch wood, will be entering the prime of her career when she heads to France in 2030 in what is considered an especially tricky event.

Brown, who competed against a field including Chinese-American superstar Eileen Gu, landed all three runs with distinction in what she described as an “incredible” experience.

She has been anointed a champion of the future by Gu, who took her career tally to three gold medals and three silver medals in two Olympics after her success.

“We just gave each other a big hug,” Brown said.

“She was really proud of me and it’s really cool. She’s the one I idolise, so to have her give me a hug at the end of my last run of the Olympics is pretty special.”

Brown was among the five teenagers who represented Australia in Cortina and they all shape as future representatives in France and beyond given their youth.

Ally Hickman showed great resilience after a heavy fall in the snowboard snow slope with a gritty performance on her final run to finish seventh, a platform for the second youngest member of the team to build on.

“That last jump was just a bit unfortunate, but I laid everything out there and showed the world my snowboarding, which was the main thing,” she said.

Fellow teenager Amelie Haskell and her fellow competitors in the halfpipe after rival Liu Jaiyu was badly injured, which added to the tension in her first Olympics.

Daisy Thomas, a silver medallist in the World Youth Games, ruptured an ACL a month before the games and withdrew, but will be hoping for better fortune the next time around.

Abbey Wilson competed in Milano Cortina alongside her older sister Jess, though in separate events, and also shapes as a face of the future for Australian sport.

And that is just the teenagers, which is why Camplin and others including Australian Sports Commission chair Kate Jenkins are excited about what is to come.

“These past two weeks have been inspiring and it was an honour to witness these performances first-hand,” Jenkins said.

“Australian athletes delivered our most successful Winter Olympics ever, competing with courage, humility and a real sense of joy. They made the country proud.

“We saw experienced athletes rise to the occasion and new talent step forward with incredible composure, showing a sustainable and exciting future for winter sport in Australia.”

But it is also worth noting that the present champions remain in an age group where, fitness and motivation pending, they can also aim with confidence towards the French Alps.

Anthony, 27, is Australia’s most successful winter Olympian and will be chasing a hat-trick of gold medals should she aim for France.

A rare error in the singles moguls might just be the catalyst for the champion to sharpen her thoughts with a view towards the French games.

Woods, 25, and Baff, 23, have their futures ahead of them and are positioned to join Anthony as multiple gold medallists should they keep improving.

The former was the flag bearer for the closing ceremony on Sunday. But expect him to be the standard bearer for Australia when the 2030 French Alps games are held.