By Mari Saito and Winni Zhou
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) -Jakara Anthony of Australia won gold in the women’s freestyle skiing moguls event on Sunday, barreling down a steep course and landing backflips to earn her country its first gold medal at the Winter Games in over a decade.
Seconds after completing her run, Anthony embraced her teammates and broke down in tears.
“It’s pretty mind-blowing,” the 23-year old said with an Australian flag draped around her shoulders.
Anthony unseated Perrine Laffont of France, who won gold at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018.
The Australian athlete, who came fourth in the 2018 Games, said she knew she would be “stoked” whatever the result after her explosive run down the challenging course.
Anthony nabbed the top score on Sunday of 83.09 in the final run that featured a cork 720, a trick she said she only began performing this year.
“I’m just over the moon. I think I’m still waiting for it to hit me a bit but I’m so, so happy and proud of what I was able to achieve tonight.”
On Twitter, the Australian Olympic Committee said Sunday marked the most successful day in the country’s Winter Olympics history.
Born in a small coastal town, Anthony started skiing at the age of 4 with her family, and she made her debut at her first World Cup event in the United States as a 16-year-old. At the 2021 World Championships held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, she placed fourth overall.
American Jaelin Kauf took silver, earning 80.28 points in her final run, while Anastasiia Smirnova of the Russian Olympic Committee won bronze.
Though some athletes have complained of the extreme cold, with temperatures dipping below -20 degrees Celsius during the day, Smirnova was not phased.
“We got used to the wind (after the qualifiers) and this weather for our team is absolutely not surprising,” the skier said.
(Reporting by Mari Saito and Winni Zhou; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
