{"id":476696,"date":"2026-02-13T05:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/476696\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T05:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:50:11","slug":"cooper-woodss-hometown-celebrates-his-milano-cortina-winter-olympics-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/476696\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooper Woods’s hometown celebrates his Milano Cortina Winter Olympics gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cooper Woods may have heard the cheers from Australian soil as he won a gold medal at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics overnight.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old became the seventh Australian to be crowned a Winter Olympic champion when he won the men’s mogul run<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Locals from his home town of Pambula Beach on the NSW far south coast were weary eyed with hoarse voices this morning after watching his gold-winning run.<\/p>\n

\"Cooper<\/p>\n

Cooper Woods shows his Olympic gold medal after winning the moguls title at the 2026 Games. (ABC Sport: Hamish Harty)<\/p>\n

Family friend Tracy Thew, who organised a watch party at the local pub, said watching the feat had been heart-stopping.<\/p>\n

“The room was deathly quiet and yet you could feel the buzz running through everyone as we waited for that score to drop,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We had a full house there and everyone just went absolutely crazy.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Tracy Thew, a family friend of Cooper Woods, organised a watch party at Pambula.\u00a0 (ABC South East NSW: Adriane Reardon)<\/p>\n

Woods met his family at the bottom of his gold-winning run<\/a>, but there were plenty of Australians back home equally as proud.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You could see the fire in his eyes and the determination,” Ms Thew said.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s a power pack and the conviction and the strength that he has for his mental game has helped him get through.”<\/p>\n

Cheers to Coop<\/p>\n

Students from Pambula Public School, where Woods graduated in 2012, were also chuffed about his win.<\/p>\n

\"two<\/p>\n

Students Oliver Kryskow (left) and Archie Ceercke are fans of Cooper Woods.\u00a0 (ABC South East NSW: Adriane Reardon)<\/p>\n

Oliver Kryskow, 9, and Archie Ceercke, 10, were both wearing Woods’s Olympic uniform to school.<\/p>\n

“Good job mate,” Oliver said. “We’re really excited to see you come back to Pambula.”<\/p>\n

Woods’s gold has proved an inspiration for Archie.<\/p>\n

“I want to be an Olympian, just like you,” he said.<\/p>\n

The gold medal win has sparked calls to install a statue or mural of Woods in his hometown.<\/p>\n

Momentum is also growing to have a welcome home party for him when he returns from Italy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"writing<\/p>\n

Pambula Beach locals are already planning a welcome home party for Cooper Woods when he returns from Italy. (ABC South East NSW: Adriane Reardon)<\/p>\n

Reward for ‘hardworking athlete’<\/p>\n

Residents from the town of Jindabyne in the NSW Snowy Mountains have also celebrated Woods’s win.<\/p>\n

Woods is well known in the NSW alps, training there regularly.<\/p>\n

‘Welcome to the gold medal club’<\/a><\/p>\n

Only seven Australian athletes have ever felt the weight of a Winter Olympic gold medal being hung around their necks. And one of the first, Alisa Camplin-Warner, was thrilled to welcome the most recent, Cooper Woods, to the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two-time winter Olympian and former moguls skier Manuela Berchtold hosted a watch party in Jindabyne last night.<\/p>\n

She described Woods’s performance as “truly special”, with many in left in tears by his achievement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Knowing Cooper his whole life, I’ve watched [him] grow as a human, grow as an athlete. I think he is the kindest, happiest, most hard-working athlete,” she said.<\/p>\n

“All of us were saying, we will never, ever forget this.<\/p>\n

“It will be one of those things; where were you when Cooper Woods became Olympic Champion?”Region’s next medallist?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the town of Dalmeny, also on the NSW far south coast, all eyes are on local Olympic hope Valentino Guseli.<\/p>\n

\"Valentino<\/p>\n

Valentino Guseli, pictured in 2024, will compete in the snowboard halfpipe final this weekend. (Supplied: Henrieke Ibing\/NEAC)<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old snowboarder has had an incredible campaign so far, after making the finals in the big air.<\/a><\/p>\n

He will also compete in the men’s snowboard half-pipe final<\/a> this weekend, along with fellow Australian Scotty James.<\/p>\n

Students and staff at Guseli’s former school in Narooma are behind him.<\/p>\n

“The buzz is just electric,” principal Paul Sweeney said.<\/p>\n

“Seeing a local kid on the world stage is something which our kids can aspire to.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Narooma Public School students cheer on Dalmeny snowboarder Valentino Guseli. (ABC South East NSW: Toby Hemmings)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooper Woods may have heard the cheers from Australian soil as he won a gold medal at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,96393,240701,11329,242682,110808,10018,242683,85,242681,196603,31080],"class_list":{"0":"post-476696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrate","11":"tag-cooper-woods","12":"tag-gold-medal","13":"tag-manuela-berchtold","14":"tag-milano-cortina-2026","15":"tag-olympics","16":"tag-pambula-public-school","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-tracy-thew","19":"tag-valentino-guseli","20":"tag-winter-olympics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476696","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=476696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}