Dear Freestyle Community,

Welcome to the inaugural Freestyle Community Update.

With the Australian winter now in the rear vision mirror, our pathway clubs, Emerging Talent Program, NSWIS National Development and OWIA World Cup teams have been training hard in the gym and at the water ramp since late September.

We wish all of our athletes at all levels of our sport a successful northern winter wherever they may be training and competing. Meanwhile, the Freestyle Skiing World Cup season started at its now traditional home in Ruka with our Australian team enjoying some strong results in Finland.

Jakara Anthony won the first World Cup of the season and expressed afterwards how happy and proud she was of her training and competition performance in Ruka. Now with her speed as another major weapon in her arsenal, the rest of the World Cup season looks like it will be great viewing for Australian and Mogul fans in general.

Japan’s Ikuma Horishima won the men’s event by a clear margin with some high level technical skiing and great jumping. Rounding out the men’s podium were two Olympic Gold Medallists Walter Walberg from Sweden and Canadian legend Mikael Kingsbury.

Australia’s Olympic silver medallist and multiple World Cup winner Matt Graham placed seventh and was very unlucky not to make the six-man Super Final. Matt has made a solid return from an injury layoff that kept him off skis during the Australian domestic winter. Keep your eye out for Matt as he builds into the next phase of this World Cup season.

Cooper Woods finished in 16th place, Ollie Logan made a solid World Cup debut finishing in 31st. George Murphy finished in 38th however Jackson Harvey was unable to start due to an injury sustained in training. 

The following night, Danielle Scott launched into her Crystal Globe defence with a second place finish at the opening Aerials World Cup in Ruka. Laura Peel was agonisingly close to the podium, missing out by just half a point. Laura has stayed back in Ruka this week and will contest the upcoming European Cup events. Abbey Willcox (12th) made the final in her first World Cup in nearly two years while Airleigh Frigo achieved the fourth-highest finish of her career in 17th.

Click here for full results from the Ruka Freestyle World Cup.

The Mogul World Cup Team are now off to Idrefjall Sweden for the next World Cup 7th - 8th December, Whilst the Aerial Team has a small break before they head to China for their next World Cup in Changchun, China on the 16th- 17th December. 

Australian Development Mogul Team

After two months of water ramp and strength and conditioning training at the Geoff Henke Water Ramp facility in Brisbane. The team then departed for Winter Park, Colorado in late November, where they will be based for the Northern Hemisphere Season.

Emerging Talent Program

The ETP program have been hard at work on the water ramp, both at the Snow Australia Lilydale Water Ramp facility and the Geoff Henke Water Ramp facility in Brisbane. Whilst up in Brisbane, the ETP program enjoyed a special Q&A session with OWIA athletes / Olympic Medallists Jakara Anthony and Matt Graham. The athletes will continue their training on water ramp and in the gym leading up to Christmas before they depart for Winter Park Colorado at the end of December. 

Development Competitions
The below athletes have been selected to compete at the US Freestyle  Selections event in Winter Park on the 15- 17 December. 

WOMEN

• Xanthia Coote 
• Lucy Pernice
• Lottie Lodge
• Indiana Speirs
• Emma Bosco 
• Kareema Wakim
• Charlotte Wilson

MEN

• Edward Hill
• Tristian Rowley
• Mac Livissianos

Click here to follow the results of this event from 15-17 December

Don’t forget, thanks to FIS.TV all World Cup events are now available to watch LIVE. Check the schedule at www.snow.org.au/live and make sure you support our Aussie athletes as they take on the World.

All the best,
David Speirs
National Freestyle Committee Chair

On the busiest weekend of the 2023/24 season so far, Australian athletes claimed six medals from events held in Asia and throughout Europe including a gold medal for Jakara Anthony and silver to Dani Scott.

Aussie snowsport fans can now catch all the FIS World Cup action this season for free via FIS TV.

Snow Australia has acquired the rights and are proud to be delivering this free of charge for Aussie fans during the 2023-2024 World Cup season.

Upcoming Freestyle World Cup Events in December:

If you are competing overseas between December 22 - January 8, please ensure you have submitted your EOI by Friday December 15.

For all FIS competitions overseas Snow Australia is the single point of entry to ensure all participants are registered correctly, have insurance and have met criteria and quota requirements.

To assist we have prepared the following 3 step checklist to make sure you are ready when you step into the start gate. You can find more information on this checklist below.

The Community Sport Awards recognises the contributions of individuals, clubs and programs at the development and pathway level of the sport.

Read about the awards winners that have been announced so far with more to come over the next couple of weeks.

During the Christmas and New Year Period the Snow Australia Offices will be closed from Friday December 22 and reopen on Monday January 8, 2024.

If you need to submit any paperwork, apply for memberships/FIS registrations or arrange event entries please ensure you submit your requests before Friday December 15. Anything received after this date may not be processed in time.

If you require any further information or asssitance please do not hesitate to contact the office via email (info@snow.org.au).

The Mt Buller Ski & Snowboard School has two leadership positions available within their Race & Events Department for the 2024 winter season.

They have undertaken a departmental review and are looking for a supervisor and assistant supervisor. The Race & Events team delivers high-quality, strategically important events for the Mt Buller resort. Each season the events department conducts over 200 events with the largest comprising of the Victorian Interschools Snow Sports Championships.