{"id":392039,"date":"2026-01-05T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392039\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T00:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:00:07","slug":"were-seen-as-the-underdogs-australian-skiers-out-on-their-own-chasing-an-olympic-dream-winter-olympics-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392039\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re seen as the underdogs\u2019: Australian skiers out on their own chasing an Olympic dream | Winter Olympics 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reilly Flanagan is on the brink of history. If the Canberran aerial skier qualifies for the Winter Olympics<\/a>, which begin in Italy next month, it will mark the first time Australia have contested the discipline\u2019s team event at the global showpiece. After Flanagan and his teammates finished fourth at the world championships in March and won bronze at a World Cup last January, they have every chance of going for gold at Milano-Cortina.<\/p>\n

Standing between Flanagan and a spot in Australia\u2019s illustrious Olympic history is the small matter of qualification. To be eligible for the mixed team event, the former gymnast must qualify for the individual discipline too.<\/p>\n

With barely a month until the Games begin, Flanagan is on the edge of the qualification line. With qualifying events in Canada beginning on Tuesday, followed by two last chances in the United States, his Olympic hopes hang in the balance.<\/p>\n

Whether Flanagan qualifies and makes history, or misses out on a ticket to Italy, could turn on a handful of points in the days ahead. \u201cIt\u2019s a very exciting time \u2013 chasing my first Winter Olympics,\u201d he says. \u201cGoing to the Olympics has been one of my biggest dreams since I was a young kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flanagan speaks to the Guardian from sunny Queensland, having dashed home from the northern hemisphere winter to spend Christmas with family and friends. It makes for an amusing contrast \u2013 he was recently competing in China, with a \u201cfeels-like\u201d temperature in the minus 30s. \u201cTo come back up here to the Sunshine Coast, it feels like a sauna,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

The heat helps the skier to switch off. \u201cIt\u2019s always great coming home,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s really important, that rest aspect \u2013 particularly with these hectic few weeks ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flanagan admits, though, that the prospect of qualification is never fully absent. \u201cIt\u2019s always in the back of your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s Reilly Flanagan trains before the aerials competition at the 2025 snowboard, freestyle and freeski world championships in Switzerland. Photograph: Marcus Hartmann\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old is one of a number of Australians still chasing their Winter Olympic dream with just weeks remaining before the national team is finalised. As many as 43 Australians competed at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, securing a record four medals; a team of more than 50 is anticipated for Milano-Cortina.<\/p>\n

Unlike Flanagan, Hannah Price is not enjoying the warmth of a home summer. A member of Australia\u2019s cross-country ski team, the 24-year-old relocated to \u00d6stersund, a cross-country skiing hub in central Sweden, in September to chase the dream \u2013 and has been travelling around Europe competing in recent months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a choice to give myself the best preseason leading into this European winter, and to learn as much as I could from these other skiers,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you train with people who are better than you, you find yourself improving \u2013 I wanted to challenge myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cross-country skiing is akin to cross-country running or mountain biking. \u201cSo whereas in downhill skiing you only go down, in cross-country skiing you go up, down and flat,\u201d Price says. Races take place on groomed snow \u2013 although commonly confused, the discipline is not back-country skiing \u2013 in distances ranging from 1.2km sprints to 50km marathons.<\/p>\n

Hannah Price dreams of representing Australia in cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics. Photograph: Jonas Paulson<\/p>\n

Price has been cross-country skiing since she was 10, and in recent years balanced her sporting career with studying law. Having graduated midway through 2025, and with a graduate law role beginning soon, Price decided to commit to Olympic qualification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is likely to be my last ski season for a while, before I knuckle down and become a lawyer,\u201d Price says. \u201cI\u2019m not sure what that will entail for my skiing, so I wanted to put my best foot forward and give myself the best possible chance of finishing up this phase of my skiing career with a bang.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heading into the season, Winter Olympic qualification was a realistic but difficult prospect for Price. However, results have not fallen her way \u2013 other competitors have done better than anticipated, leaving Price unlikely to qualify (she remains a mathematical possibility of reaching the Games). Price is sanguine about the likelihood of falling short.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taken the pressure off trying to chase that one specific goal,\u201d she says. \u201cNow my focus is just on skiing as well as I possibly can and not placing too much weight on the numbers and the results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannah Price needs a change of fortune to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Photograph: Jonas Paulson<\/p>\n

Price says she is skiing better than ever. \u201cI\u2019ve taken that pressure off \u2013 I can just focus on what I\u2019m doing, rather than the implications of what I\u2019m doing,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Whatever happens, Price has no regrets. \u201cSkiing is the thing I love most in this world,\u201d she says. \u201cObviously aspiring for the Olympics is this really big thing, everyone understands what the Olympics means. But the process for getting there can be as valuable as the end goal itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love it a lot. I\u2019ve gained so much from chasing it, that if I fail, I haven\u2019t lost anything. If anything, I\u2019ve gained more from failing than I would have if I had not tried at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Flanagan, his Winter Olympic destiny will be determined by 12 January when the last qualifying event wraps up at Lake Placid. Price will race up until 19 January, before the official team announcement is made in the final week of the month. Whatever happens in the weeks ahead, both hope that the Games might stimulate more interest in winter sports in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia is obviously not a very wintery country, we\u2019re seen as the underdogs,\u201d says Flanagan. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the luxuries that the big [Winter Olympic] nations have to train on snow on home soil.\u201d<\/p>\n

In late 2020, a specialist water ramp facility was opened in Brisbane for aerial skiers, which is already boosting Australia\u2019s chances in the sport. \u201cFor us to finally have [the facility] is a big advantage,\u201d Flanagan adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cCross-country skiing is on a really exciting trajectory,\u201d Price says. \u201cAustralia is climbing the ranks, slowly but surely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reilly Flanagan is on the brink of history. If the Canberran aerial skier qualifies for the Winter Olympics,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-392039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}