Back-to-back podiums for Mia Clift to round out season
Published Mon 07 Apr 2025
Story courtesy of OWIA
Mia Clift capped off an impressive breakthrough season with back-to-back podium finishes at the Snowboard Cross World Cup Final in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, with a bronze medal performance overnight. This marks her third consecutive podium result, with her silver and bronze in Canada over the weekend following a second place finish in the Teams event at March's World Championships in Switzerland.
It was a strong finish from the Australian team which had three other athletes join Clift in the top 10. Josie Baff was second in the women's small final for sixth, while Adam Lambert won the men's small final for fifth with Cameron Bolton ninth.
All four riders also finished the season ranked in the top 10 on the World Cup standings.
Clift won her opening round of 32 heat and was second in the quarter-final to advance to the semi-final which also included teammate Josie Baff.
In a close semi-final, Clift crossed the line in second to advance to the big final, edging out teammate Baff who was relegated to the small final.
Clift was joined in the big final by Sina Siegenthaler of Switzerland and French riders Lea Casta and Julia Pereira de Sousa. Casta, who secured the World Cup Crystal Globe the previous day, led from start to finish to make it back-to-back victories. Siegenthaler passed Clift just before the finish line to finish second however the Aussie still earned a place on the podium.
“The big final was a lot of fun with all the girls” said the 20-year-old Clift from Melbourne.
“I was third into turn two and then following Julia and I got her out of four and kept pushing to the finish and then followed Lea, but got a bit crazy myself over the double feature and then kind of ruined it, but still got third so super happy.
“A lot of training, a lot of hard work and snowboarding at home in Australia coming up.”
Other Australian results included James Johnstone 40th and Declan Dent 42nd.
Baff was the highest ranked Australian in fourth at season’s end, while Clift moved to eighth in a breakthrough season. In the men’s final rankings Lambert finished a career-best sixth and Bolton was ninth.
