Australia’s Jakara Anthony looks to dual moguls for Winter Olympics 2026 success

Australia’s freestyle skiing Olympic moguls champion at Beijing2022, Jakara Anthony will be looking for a second chance to medal at Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 after her shock exit in moguls finals on Wednesday (11 February), where she finished eighth.

With a focus on training and achieving peak form, Anthony came into these Games focused on defending her moguls gold, but also with excitement for the second medal opportunity in dual moguls discipline.

Anthony is definitely one who can do it as the most successful Australian skier of all time, a title cemented with her 26th career World Cup victory at the final moguls World Cup of the season in Waterville Valley, Vermont. She's also the current leader of the overall FIS World Cup standings.

Anthony shared a message on her social media, after her disappointing finish in moguls, saying "Sport can be equally amazing and devastating but that’s why we love it," adding that she'd be cheering on the men's field and she'll be back for dual moguls.

In an exclusive interview with Olympics.com ahead of the Games, Anthony was enthusiastic about her chances.

“What I’m really excited for about Milano Cortina is that we’ve got two cracks at a gold medal this time.”

What is the freestyle skiing dual moguls event?

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Jakara Anthony gets granular on the details that keep her ahead

Four years on from Beijing 2022, Jakara Anthony says her approach hasn’t fundamentally changed, but it has evolved.

“I don't think I've changed as a human since Beijing,” Anthony said. “I think I've learnt a lot over the last four years, and I've been able to take that experience and use it to help with things in life, in sport. Training is just the same approach, trying to train hard and master as many skills as we can heading into these Games.”

Ahead of the Games, Anthony’s focus has narrowed to the smallest details.

“I’m trying to be as good as possible at the sport,” she explained. “Trying to master as many skills as possible: the skiing, the jumping, the speed. And to do that, you need to be working towards mastering stuff outside of the sport - in the gym, fitness, strength, the mental side of things, just absolutely everything.”

It’s that granular attention to detail and gaining an advantage wherever she can—what Anthony calls the “one percenters”—that she believes will help her win.

Jakara Anthony is embracing the pressure that comes with the Olympics

“It’s going be different going into these Games as reigning champion,” Anthony acknowledged ahead of the Games.

“I didn't experience pressure going into the last Games and I probably still don't know what they're going to be,” she says.

But she has an upbeat interpretation of what the expectation is of her bringing home a second gold medal.

“You could interpret that as pressure, or you can interpret it as, like, ‘it's super cool that people are looking up to me like that and have that kind of belief in me.’”

Anthony is choosing the latter, seeing it as her fans belief in her ability to repeat her Beijing win.

Her optimistic take is characteristic of her as a person. After Beijing 2022, Anthony suffered a collarbone injury requiring surgery, one that resulted in her missing most of the competition season the year prior to the Olympics.

“I think it was a good break mentally,” says Anthony listing off the events she was excited to experience during her summer at home, a rarity for winter athletes from the Southern Hemisphere.

“I got my first summer at home in fifteen years,” she says. “I got to go to my first Tennis Grand Slam and World Superbikes at Phillip Island, and all sorts of things over the summer.”

“Recovery comes with all sorts of challenges, mental and physical,” says Anthony, “but I'm really happy with where everything's at at the moment.”

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