Jakara Anthony

Jakara Anthony (born 8 July 1998) is an Australian freestyle skier and two-time Olympic gold medallist. She is the Olympic champion from the women's moguls event at the 2022 Winter Olympics, becoming Australia's sixth Winter Olympic Games gold medallist. She holds the record for the most World Cup circuit victories in a season in women's moguls, achieved during the 2023/24 season. At the 2019 FIS World Championships, she finished with a silver medal. She also won gold at the inaugural women's dual moguls event at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, becoming Australia's first Winter Olympics double gold medalist.

Anthony was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours for service to sport as a gold medallist at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games in 2022.

Early years Born in the tropical North Queensland city of Cairns, Anthony's family moved to Barwon Heads, her hometown, when she was in pre-school. She began skiing at the age of four, as her parents worked as seasonal workers at Mount Buller, spending the winter months skiing and attending primary school and relocated back to Barwon Heads for the summer.

Career beginnings (2015–2021) Anthony made her World Cup circuit debut in 2015 at the age of 16, finishing 33rd.

In 2017, she made her World Championship debut, finishing 12th overall in the standings in the moguls.

She progressed through to her second-ever Super Final, finishing fourth with a score of 75.35, only 2.05 points behind bronze medallist Yuliya Galysheva, and 3.30 points behind Olympic champion Perrine Laffont. Her fourth-place finish was considered a surprise, which included finishing ahead of compatriot and defending World Champion, Britt Cox, by 0.27 points. She finished with the silver medal, the first major championship medal in her career, behind Kazakhstan's Yuliya Galysheva. This meant she entered the Olympic competition as the third seed overall, behind first-seeded Kawamura and second-seeded Laffont, having won one event throughout the World Cup season. Unlike at the 2018 Olympics, Anthony felt it was "tough" during the waiting period between qualification and the finals, as COVID-19 restrictions in China meant athletes were not able to train on snow until competition day. Once the training period began for the athletes participating in the final, Anthony recalled feeling, "we’re on here, I can do this," which continued as the finals competition began that evening. This trick proved pivotal to Anthony's dominance throughout the event, a dominance her rivals, including Laffont and Kawamura, could not match. She also won her first Crystal Globe for overall moguls and dual moguls, finishing ahead of Laffont in both events, while Laffont won the Crystal Globe in the singles event. She earned her first victory at Ruka, Finland, earning most of her points in her aerial and turn sections, finishing three points ahead of her closest competitor. Her win at Deer Valley coincided with Matt Graham's victory in the men's event, marking only the second time in history that the Australian team won the men's and women's event in the moguls discipline.

Record-breaking winning streak and injury (2023–present)

2023/24 season Anthony's World Cup season became not only the most outstanding of her career, but also one of the best mogul seasons of all time, achieving a record haul of wins and the highest points tally in the sport's history.

Anthony's second moguls win came at Idre Fjäll, Sweden, winning with a 79.74-point run during the final round, with Rino Yanagimoto and Olivia Giaccio finishing second and third, respectively. Her fourth win of the season came in Bakuriani, Georgia, after qualifying and finishing first in all rounds of the competition, with a two-point gap between her and silver medallist Yanagimoto in the Super Final.

Anthony's only one of two losses during the season came at the dual moguls competition in Deer Valley, losing to Olympic silver medallist Jaelin Kauf. She rebounded in the dual moguls event, beating Kauf with a score of 22–13, with a run that Anthony called "one of my best competition runs I have ever done."

In Kazakhstan, Anthony achieved her 12th and 13th victories of the season, surpassing Hannah Kearney's record of most victories in a season, winning seven singles and five dual events.

Overall, Anthony at the end of the season had won fourteen of the sixteen moguls events held throughout the entire season, with a points total of 1480, 416 points ahead of Kauf, who finished second.

2024/25 season Anthony continued her podium streak into the beginning of the 2024/25 season, with a silver to Perrine Laffont, who was returning from a year-long absence, in Ruka, Finland. Anthony welcomed the return of Laffont to competition, citing it as an extra form of motivation to continue the high standards she set after her Olympic gold in Beijing, adding, "I think it's great to have so many chicks up there at that top end of the sport, that's what makes it exciting." She had surgery in Oslo and missed the rest of the season, returning home to Australia. In her first competition in Ruka, she flew off the course during the mogul section and missed the podium.

In the final round of the second competition in Ruka, Anthony scored 79.89 points to win the event, beating Olivia Giaccio by 0.25 points, and stated the win felt "special," coming one year and one day after her season-ending collarbone injury last year. When discussing her return to competition, particularly after her performance in the previous event of the weekend, Anthony remarked she needed to "remember" how to ski in competition and make "adjustments" back to a competitive environment, remarking that yesterday's finals performance "was a bummer." Along with Matt Graham winning the men's event, the Australian team completed a gold-medal sweep in an event for the first time since Anthony and Graham achieved it in the dual moguls in Deer Valley in 2023, and only the third time in history that Australia had won both the men's and women's gold medals in the same event. She then was victorious at Waterville Valley, her 26th World Cup victory, eclipsing the record of most World Cup wins by an Australian athlete in any discipline, overtaking aerial skier Jacqui Cooper.

2026 Winter Olympics Anthony was announced, on 4 February 2026, as Australia's female flag bearer for the parade of nations at the 2026 Winter Olympics. During the press conference, she said that becoming the flag bearer did not seem "feasible" and that she was "lost for words" when she was told she had been selected. She entered the Super Final as the favourite to win gold, achieving the highest score in the event, 83.96 points, during the first half of the final. She began the competition with a 35-point victory over South African Malica Malherbe, and won her round of 16 dual against Canada's Jessica Linton 27-8, advancing to the quarterfinals. Her quarterfinal was against Olivia Giaccio, narrowly winning the dual and advancing to the final four. In the semi-final, Anthony met moguls gold medallist Lemley, with Lemley falling during her run and not completing the course, ensuring that Anthony advanced to the final, and guaranteeing her a second Olympic medal. It was Australia's 3rd gold medal at the games, making it Australia's overall best Winter Olympics performance.

In August 2025, the moguls course at Mount Buller was named after her. YearAgeMogulsDual moguls 2018 Pyeongchang 19 4 N/A 2022 Beijing 23 1 2026 Milano Cortina 27 8 1

World Championships

YearAgeMogulsDual moguls 2017 Sierra Nevada 18 12 16 2019 Utah 20 2 7 2021 Almaty 22 4 11 2023 Bakuriani 24 17 2025 Engadin 26

World Cup Season standings

YearOverall mogulsMogulsDual moguls 2015 – 2016 41 2017 22 2018 17 2019 3 2020 2 2021 10 2022 1 3 1 2023 2 1 6 2024 1 1 1 2025 20 13 – 2026 2 1 6

Results by round

Key to colours

Key to locations RUK = Ruka CAL = Calgary (Canada Olympic Park) DVR = Deer Valley Resort LKP = Lake Placid VSC = Val Saint-Côme TAZ = Tazawako MEG = Megève MOW = Moscow

BPP = Bogwang Phoenix Park THW = Thaiwoo TRM = Mont Tremblant Resort AIR = Airolo ALM = Almaty (Shymbulak Mountain Resort) KRA = Krasnoyarsk IDR = Idre Fjäll ADH = Alpe d'Huez VAL = Chiesa in Valmalenco (Valtellina) BAK = Bakuriani

WAT = Waterville Valley Resort BEI = Beidahu LIV = Livigno NAN = Nanto (Taira Ski Area) SHA = Shahdag Mountain Resort

Other notes Locations in normal font are mogul events. Locations in italics are dual mogul events.

Race podiums

Event 1st 2nd 3rd Total Moguls 17 10 3 30 Dual moguls 9 3 4 16 Total 26 13 7 46

No Season Date Location Discipline Result 1 2018–19 15 December 2018 Thaiwoo Moguls Second 2 18 January 2019 Lake Placid Moguls Winner 3 26 January 2019 Tremblant Moguls Second 4 23 February 2019 Tazawako Moguls Second 5 24 January 2019 Tazawako Dual moguls Third 6 2019–20 6 February 2020 Deer Valley Moguls Second 7 22 February 2020 Tazawako Moguls Third 8 1 March 2020 Shymbulak Dual moguls Second 9 7 March 2020 Krasnoyarsk Dual moguls Second 10 2020–21 4 December 2021 Ruka Moguls Second 11 11 December 2021 Idre Fjäll Moguls Third 12 12 December 2021 Idre Fjäll Dual moguls Third 13 17 December 2021 Alpe d'Huez Moguls Winner 14 18 December 2021 Alpe d'Huez Dual moguls Winner 15 8 January 2022 Tremblant Moguls Second 16 13 January 2022 Deer Valley Moguls Third 17 14 January 2022 Deer Valley Moguls Second 18 12 March 2022 Chiesa in Valmalenco Dual moguls Winner 19 18 March 2022 Megève Moguls Second 20 19 March 2022 Megève Dual moguls Second 21 2022–23 3 December 2022 Ruka Moguls Winner 22 10 December 2022 Idre Fjäll Moguls Winner 23 16 December 2022 Alpe d'Huez Moguls Winner 24 17 December 2022 Alpe d'Huez Dual moguls Third 25 21 January 2023 Val Saint-Côme Moguls Second 26 2 February 2023 Deer Valley Moguls Winner 27 2023–24 2 December 2023 Ruka Moguls Winner 28 8 December 2023 Idre Fjäll Moguls Winner 29 9 December 2023 Idre Fjäll Dual moguls Third 30 15 December 2023 Alpe d'Huez Moguls Winner 31 16 December 2023 Alpe d'Huez Dual moguls Winner 32 22 December 2023 Bakuriani Moguls Winner 33 23 December 2023 Bakuriani Dual moguls Winner 34 19 January 2023 Val Saint-Côme Moguls Winner 35 20 January 2023 Val Saint-Côme Dual moguls Winner 36 26 January 2023 Waterville Valley Moguls Winner 37 27 January 2023 Waterville Valley Dual moguls Winner 38 3 February 2023 Deer Valley Dual moguls Winner 39 8 March 2023 Almaty Moguls Winner 40 9 March 2023 Almaty Dual moguls Winner 41 16 March 2023 Chiesa in Valmalenco Dual moguls Winner 42 2024–25 30 November 2024 Ruka Moguls Second 43 6 December 2024 Idre Fjäll Moguls Winner 44 2025–26 8 December 2025 Ruka Moguls Winner 45 9 January 2026 Val Saint-Côme Moguls Winner 46 16 January 2026 Waterville Valley Moguls Winner