Freestyle - 2026 Domestic Season Wrap

Australia's Freestyle community built towards another international season across a busy 2026 domestic calendar, with athletes of all ages taking to the snow for competition, development and progression.

The season followed a landmark international campaign for Australian Freestyle, with Jakara Anthony and Cooper Woods claiming Olympic gold in moguls at Milano Cortina 2026, Matt Graham adding dual moguls bronze and Danielle Scott winning silver in aerials.

MOGULS

The domestic moguls season featured a mix of junior and senior competition, providing opportunities for emerging athletes to test themselves alongside Australia’s leading Olympians.

The NSW Junior Mogul Series at Thredbo in July brought close to 100 Junior and Youth competitors together across two days of competition, with changing gate widths and gradients testing athletes across different aspects of their turns and airs.

Ignatius Irving, Billy Brown, Luca Kingham, Benjamin Hodgkinson and Alana Hunt were among the standout performers across the Junior and Youth categories, while Victoria Jones and Isabella Lim shared the women’s Junior wins.

The event also marked the competitive debut for several athletes from the Talent Identification Program (TIP), which moved to Thredbo for the first time in the program’s 15-year history.

The eight-athlete cohort spent three days working with Thredbo coach Will Martin and NSWIS athlete mentors, combining technical training with competition preparation and gaining an early introduction to the moguls pathway.

The Australia New Zealand Cup then brought Australia’s leading moguls athletes together with international competitors at Perisher in August, with Matt Graham and Charlotte Wilson claiming victories on the opening day.

Graham overcame a difficult first run to produce a strong second performance and take the men’s win, with Jackson Harvey joining him on the podium in third. Wilson led an Australian sweep of the women’s podium ahead of Emma Bosco and Japan’s Hikaru Sakai.

The Australians continued to feature strongly on day two, with Wilson backing up her opening-day victory to claim another women’s gold ahead of Bosco. Graham finished third in the men’s event behind Japan’s Ikkei Fujimura, with Harvey again featuring in the top three.

Olympic medalist Graham also won his 10th National title during the domestic winter season.

The domestic calendar also provided opportunities for athletes further along the pathway, with events including the Junior Series, Adams Jnats, Australian Interschools Moguls Championships and Abom Mogul Challenge helping emerging athletes gain valuable competition experience. 

AERIALS

The Australian aerials program also continued its development through the domestic season, with athletes using training opportunities on the water ramps and snow to build skills and prepare for the international season ahead.

Australia’s World Cup team completed six water ramp blocks across the domestic winter, at the Olympic Winter Training Centre.

Following Scott’s Olympic silver medal in Milano Cortina, alongside Abbey Willcox and Flanagan’s fourth-place finish in the mixed team event, the domestic season provided an important foundation for the next generation of Australian aerialists.

The World Cup crew also spent time on the snow, with a development camp at Mt Buller from August 5 - 17. 

The Continental Cup team all had at least four water training blocks in the Aussie winter, with Chloe Saliaris, Sophie Treloar, Miriana Perkins and Sian Francis all taking steps forward in the water ramp training.

On the snow, there were three key development blocks for the Continental Cup contingent. The first, at New Zealand’s Silverdale saw the athletes spend eight days on snow indoors at Snowplanet, to continue their development.  They each spent between 25 and 45 days on snow during the next key development block, from June 23 - September 1 at Mt Buller. Most recently, the Continental Cup athletes had seven days on the snow at Cardrona.

In the Development ranks, athletes had a key on-snow training period from 23 June - 7 August, aimed at preparing them for water ramping and jumping on snow. They all then had two water ramp training blocks over September-October, in Brisbane and in Lilydale, Victoria. Jasmine Muscroft completed her first water jumps after a strong training period in Mt Buller, while Liberty Stewart stepped up her training, joining the Continental Cup athletes on water ramps and on snow.

LOOKING AHEAD

The 2026 domestic season provided a strong foundation for the next chapter of Australian Freestyle, from junior competitors experiencing their first moguls events through to established athletes continuing to lead the way.

With Australia coming off a season highlighted by four Olympic medals across moguls and aerials, the continued development of athletes through domestic competition and pathway programs will be key to maintaining the strength of the Freestyle program in the seasons ahead.