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Brimming with tears of joy, Josie Baff celebrated a stunning victory in the women’s snowboard cross at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, doubling Australia’s gold medal count in the process.
The 23-year-old Australian athlete leaped with delight on the podium, marking a historic moment as the first Australian woman to secure a medal in this event. Her win came hot on the heels of Cooper Woods’ unexpected triumph in the moguls, just a day earlier.
This achievement echoes Australia’s success at the 2010 Vancouver Games, where the nation last claimed two gold medals.
Adding a personal triumph to the occasion, Baff’s boyfriend, Canadian snowboarder Eliot Grondin, clinched a silver medal in the men’s snowboard cross.
Reflecting on her journey, Baff shared, “I originally started in surf lifesaving, and so did Cooper. We often crossed paths in Pambula, and I’ve come to know him and his family very well.”
Josie Baff doubled Australia’s Olympic gold medal haul at the Winter Olympics after storming to a superb victory in the women’s snowboard cross event at Milan-Cortina
Baff pipped Czech star Eva Adamczykova and Italian Michela Moioli in a thrilling final
‘Seeing his win definitely sparked a little fire in me…I thought if he can do it, I can do it too.’
Baff was brilliantly daring in both her semi-final and the four-racer medal race at Livigno Snow Park, as she slipped through on the inside with immaculate overtaking manoeuvres to win both races.
Baff, the world championship runner-up in 2023, did it the hard way after revealing she battled the flu earlier in the week.
She pipped both the racer who beat her for gold three years ago, Czech star Eva Adamczykova, and reigning world champ and 2018 Olympic gold medallist, Italian Michela Moioli, in a thrilling final.
Baff felt she earned the win through her hard work since her Beijing disappointment, when she was left in tears after her campaign ended in the opening race.
‘It’s amazing – I would like to say that I can’t believe it, but I kind of can,’ she said.
‘I feel like I deserve it and I put in a lot of hard work so I knew I could do it but to actually have the medal around my neck is very, very cool.
‘It’s definitely something that I’ve been working towards for a very long time and my team has been helping me achieve that every step of the way.’
Baff (pictured, middle) was all smiles after her overtake saw her win gold by 0.04 seconds
Aussie halfpipe superstar Scotty James was shattered after finishing second in the men’s halfpipe final (pictured, after falling on his final run)
It was Australia’s second ever snowboard cross medal after Jarryd Hughes took silver in the men’s race in Pyeongchang in 2018, while Torah Bright is the only other woman to medal, winning two in the halfpipe.
Baff’s father Peter coached both Bright and his daughter when she was a junior star.
Baff had arrived in strong form, sitting in the world No.2 ranking, but she had a slow start to the day and finished only 17th in the seedings.
That meant she raced against new mum Adamczykova – the top seed – all the way through.
Baff showed her class to win her first race and move through to the quarter-finals, where she finished second in a four-race field in a heart-stopping photo finish.
She wasn’t headed from there, charging through her semi-final, and then making a move midway through the final with a superb overtake to take the gold by 0.04 seconds.
Later in the day, Aussie halfpipe superstar Scotty James was shattered after finishing second in the men’s halfpipe final.
James was beaten by Japan’s Totsuka Yuto, who scored a jaw-dropping 95.00 from the judges on his second run.
Fellow Aussie Valentino Guseli finished fifth.