Cooper Woods is an Australian freestyle skier who competes in the mogul skiing discipline. He was selected for his first Australian Olympic team for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
Hailing from the NSW South Coast, Cooper joined the Perisher Winter Sports Club at age 12 and was awarded a NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) Scholarship at 16. It can be said that Cooper was destined to be a professional skier. His mum, Katrina Woods, is an Australian aerial skier and his uncle, Peter Topalovic, is the legendary Perisher and Australian mogul team coach and Winter Sports Program Coordinator at NSWIS.
The mogul skier made his World Cup debut during the 2017/18 season at Deer Valley before going on to make history in December 2018 when he became the first Australian male to win a US Freestyle Selections event. After qualifying eighth, he bettered his times to claim the top spot on the first day of competition at Winter Park. He then backed it up with a silver medal in the second event to end an impressive week of competition.
Cooper qualified for his first-ever World Cup final at Idre Fjall in December 2020, finishing in 13th place before making his World Championship a few months later in Almaty, Kazakhstan where he was the highest placing Australian in the men’s final, finishing in 15th position.
In the lead-up to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Cooper recorded a 9th place finish at the World Cup event in Tremblant, Canada, and 5th place at the Deer Valley World Cup in January 2022.
On debut at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, the youngest of the Australian mogul’s team, Cooper, achieved an incredible 6th place finish in the Olympic Super Final.