{"id":626748,"date":"2026-04-24T00:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T00:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626748\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T00:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T00:02:15","slug":"olympic-champions-take-top-gongs-at-snow-australia-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626748\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Champions Take Top Gongs at Snow Australia Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 2026 Snow Australia Awards marked the official homecoming of the Australian Olympic and Paralympic team from the Milano-Cortina Games, with the snowsports community coming together to celebrate the achievements from the year that was in Melbourne tonight.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s newly minted Olympic and Paralympic medallists were among those in attendance at the 2026 Snow Australia Awards, which saw athletes recognised for their performances on snow at every level, from Junior World Championships right through to the Milano-Cortina Games.<\/p>\n

Outgoing Snow Australia CEO Michael Kennedy, said tonight\u2019s Awards caps off a phenomenal year of performances by Australian athletes on the global stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight we celebrated an incredible 12 months of Australian performances internationally, highlighted by our best event Winter Olympic & Paralympic Games earlier this year in Milano-Cortina.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralians were hooked in watching our athletes not only perform but deliver in Milano-Cortina, with a record number of top 10 finishes across both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but also right across the World Cup season.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight we celebrated as a community the wonderful achievements of our athletes and coaches, both on and off the snow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Amongst Australia\u2019s six Winter Olympic Games medallists from Milano-Cortina,\u00a0Cooper\u00a0Woods, who won gold in sensational fashion in a red hot men\u2019s moguls final, was rewarded with the\u00a0Male Athlete of the Year for Olympic Disciplines.<\/p>\n

The New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holder, who had only once been on the moguls World Cup podium, delivered a masterclass to come through the qualifiers and top the Olympic podium.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be up against the likes of Scotty James, Val (Guseli), Adam Lambert, Matty Graham and win an award of this honour is unbelievable and I\u2019m just so happy and so proud,\u201d Woods said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to enjoy every little moment that\u2019s coming at me\u2026and have fun. When this all settles, in a month or so, I\u2019ll probably have some time to really sit down and reflect on what\u2019s happened this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNights like this are really important to reconnect, share the memories of the journey and celebrate with one another,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Two more NSWIS Olympic gold medallists\u00a0Jakara\u00a0Anthony\u00a0and\u00a0Josie\u00a0Baff\u00a0could not be split by the judges and jointly took home\u00a0Female Athlete of the Year for Olympic Disciplines.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Anthony dominated the World Cup circuit, winning three gold medals before arriving in Milan where she became Australia\u2019s first and only Winter Olympian to win two gold medals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so exciting \u2013 like everyone has said tonight we had such an incredible Games and to get to share this Award with Josie and to take home the (Olympic) gold together is unreal,\u201d Anthony said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get to share this Award with someone this time around just shows how far we\u2019ve come, and it\u2019s so exciting, and I couldn\u2019t ask for a better athlete and person to share it with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jindabyne\u2019s first Olympic gold medalist, Josie Baff, also had a sensational winter with three World Cup podiums, finishing the season ranked fourth overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year the girls up on that stage are taking it to a new level, so it takes something incredible to win this Award,\u201d Baff said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo win Olympic gold medals is just insane, Indra\u2019s season was so inspiring and of course Dani\u2019s silver.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m really proud to be standing here with Jakara tonight as joint winners of this Award,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For\u00a0Athlete of the Year in Paralympic Disciplines,\u00a0NSWIS scholarship holder Ben\u00a0Tudhope\u00a0won the male athlete award for the eighth year in a row, adding two more Paralympic medals and three World Cup podiums to his already-impressive record during his 2025\/26 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is number seven, or eight\u2026I\u2019ve lost count,\u201d Tudhope joked. \u201cBut it\u2019s incredible, and this night is always great to catch up and see the whole snow industry come together, and what a year it\u2019s been for wintersport in Australia, so this one is definitely really special,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Georgia\u00a0Gunew\u00a0took out the female award for the third time, accepting the accolade with guide and NSWIS athlete Ethan Jackson following a season which saw them achieve a season-best result of third place in a World Cup slalom, alongside three top five finishes across their World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cReceiving this award is so special, and I\u2019m proud to represent everyone here,\u201d Gunew said.<\/p>\n

They also made their Paralympic debut, recording impressive finishes of tenth and eleventh against the world\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis season was just insanity \u2013 we\u2019ve never done a Games before so being there for the first time is crazy and an experience I\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019\u2019m really excited to come back for the French Alps (Winter Paralympics 2030) and try and run it back, and achieve the best we can achieve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The prestigious\u00a0Alex \u2018Chumpy\u2019 Pullin Outstanding Achievement Award\u00a0was presented to NSWIS veteran\u00a0Matt\u00a0Graham\u00a0who had an incredible season, highlighted by an Olympic bronze medal, two World Cup gold medals, one silver and seven top-5 World Cup finishes \u2013 finishing the season ranked second overall.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Junior\u00a0Athlete\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0Year\u00a0award was taken out by teenage sensation\u00a0Indra Brown, who made history during the 2025\/26 season, winning a medal in her World Cup debut, going on to win two more World Cup medals including a maiden victory all before the age of 16. The NSWIS scholarship holder also won the Junior World Championships title, and finished fifth at the Olympic Winter Games.<\/p>\n

Peter\u00a0McNeil\u00a0won the Award for the\u00a0Coach of the Year\u00a0in a season in which his athletes delivered three Winter Olympics Games medals, among a host of World Cup podiums.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Retiring athletes\u00a0Belle\u00a0Brockhoff (NSWIS),\u00a0Phil\u00a0Bellingham\u00a0and\u00a0Harry\u00a0Laidlaw\u00a0received their\u00a0Snow Australia Medals, with\u00a0Alex \u2018Chumpy\u2019 Pullin\u00a0posthumously honoured, his dad Chris accepting the award on behalf of the Pullin family. The Snow Australia Medal is presented to all athletes across Olympic and Paralympic disciplines who during their career represented Australia at the Olympic or Paralympic Winter Games or finished top three at a World Cup or World Championship level.<\/p>\n

Images: Snow Australia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Snow Australia Awards marked the official homecoming of the Australian Olympic and Paralympic team from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-626748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626748","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=626748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}