Australia’s golden 2026 Winter Olympics campaign ended on Sunday not with a medal, but with a thrilling view of the future. Following the nation’s most successful Winter Games of all time, the denouement suggested that this might just be the beginning.
Sixteen-year-old Indra Brown’s fifth place in the freestyle skiing halfpipe on the final day of Milano Cortina was a fitting conclusion to a remarkable Games for team Australia. While Brown missed out on a medal, her performance – just 5.5 points off the podium – was historic all the same.
Brown’s performance was the best by an Australian athlete under the age of 18 at the Winter Olympics. She also landed a 1080 spin, three full rotations in the air; it was the first time Brown had achieved the manoeuvre in competition, and she was one of only two competitors to land the 1080 on Sunday. Barely 16, with only a few months of senior-level competition under her belt, the landing showed remarkable composure on this most difficult stage.
Brown’s heroics, and an admirable performance from promising cross-country ski talent Rosie Fordham in the 50km event, concluded Australia’s campaign on Sunday. With three gold medals, two silver and one bronze, it was an astonishing Games for Australia. Finishing 14th on the medal tally – ahead of rivals Great Britain, and just behind winter sport heavyweights Canada, Japan and China – was unforeseen even by the most optimistic fans heading into the Games.
In addition to individual talent, Australia’s success in Italy can in part be attributed to smart investment. In the absence of high mountains and sustained snowfall, Australian sporting authorities have invested in alternatives. Take the Geoff Henke Winter Olympic Sports Training Centre in Brisbane, where aerial and mogul skiers practice into water. It is its only facility of its kind in the southern hemisphere, and had involvement in a majority of Australia’s medals. Danielle Scott, who won silver in the women’s aerials, said she would have quit the sport without the facility, which opened in 2021.
Peak body Snow Australia has also developed a world class dry slope airbag at their training centre in Jindabyne, allowing skiers and snowboarders to practice year-round. As the head of Snow Australia told the Nine newspapers last week, “we are most competitive in the sports that can be trained well off snow”. All but one of Australia’s medals at the Milano Cortina Games – Josie Baff’s gold in the snowboard cross – fit that description.
Both facilities opened in the past five years, meaning their impact is only now being felt. The overall performance in Italy suggests a bright future.
For Brown, that future is already here; the teenager is competing in the FIS Park and Pipe Junior World Championships in Canada in the week ahead, and was forced to delay her flight after the halfpipe final was postponed for a day due to weather. She also has the small matter of high school to worry about – Brown told reporters last week that in between qualifying she had been doing her maths homework (linear equations, to be precise).
It will also be back to the drawing board for Australia’s sports administrators following this unprecedented Winter Olympic campaign. The Games concluded with a plea from Australian chef de mission and former gold medal-winning aerial skier Alisa Camplin-Warner for improved funding.
“We’ve probably been, in winter sport, disproportionately funded,” the team boss said on Saturday. “Even though we’re very grateful for the ongoing funding we’ve had, I think there’s just a real opportunity to equalise that a little. We can get to the next level and there’ll just be more Australians that can chase that dream.”
Winter sports received just under $40m in federal government high-performance funding over the past four-year Olympic cycle. Summer sports receive multiples of that; this year alone, swimming – Australia’s most successful summer Olympic discipline – will receive almost $20 million for able and para-swimmers. There are also fears that the focus on the home Brisbane 2032 Olympics could diminish attention and support on the Winter team.
In her plea for more funding, Camplin-Warner highlighted the “shoe-string budget” that many Australian Winter Games athletes operate on. It is notable that even Brown, recognised as one of the most exciting young freeskiers in the world, has been crowdfunding through the Australian Sports Foundation for support.
With time, age and no doubt more support following this impressive debut campaign, Brown will soar to greater heights. One disappointment on Sunday for the young Australian was the judging approach; having rewarded technical prowess in qualifying, judges seemed to place more emphasis on amplitude (height) in the final. Constrained by her age and physique, Brown reached a maximum of three metres – one of her rivals, Britain’s Zoe Atkin who won bronze, reached five metres.
For the 16-year-old, that height will come with time. Australian fans will hope the same is true of the nation’s Winter Olympics achievements generally. More than half of the 50-odd Australian Olympians in Italy this month are debutants. For them, and for Australia, the prospect of greater heights in four years’ time awaits.
