Daisy Thomas Wins Australia’s First Big Air Youth Olympic Medal

Freestyle skier Daisy Thomas has won Australia’s first ever Winter Youth Olympic medal in Big Air, claiming silver at the Winter Youth Olympic Games (WYOG) in Gangwon, South Korea today.

Daisy cleanly executed two of her three jumps, a left double 10 safety and a switch left bio 9 safety, to claim the silver medal with a combined score of 172.75, just 7.25 points behind gold medallist Flora Tabanelli from Italy.

The 16-year-old, who made her World Cup debut in December last year, said she was happy to land on the podium after her fifth place finish in slopestyle.

“I came here with the goal of getting on the podium, I’ve had the Youth Olympic medal on my phone’s home screen for over a year now, and to now have the medal in my hands feels so surreal!” Daisy said.

“I was pretty close to the podium in slopestyle, so heading into this morning I was pretty confident but also pretty excited and determined to get on the podium.

“I went in confident in my own ability, in my training and in my two tricks. I had a game plan and ultimately just had to execute that plan, which I did.

“I was pretty stoked after scoring high on my first jump (91.00), it took the pressure off a little bit and set me up well for the rest of the competition.”

The competition saw athletes perform three different tricks, with the accumulation of their best two scores making up their final score.

Daisy’s silver is Australia’s third medal of the Games, just one off Australia’s most ever WYOG medal haul (four at Lillehammer 2016), with a week of competition still to come.

Australian free ski coach Nicko Drew said he is proud of what Daisy achieved today.

“I am extremely happy with Daisy’s performance today,” Mr Drew said.

“Daisy is such a self-motivated and driven athlete, constantly striving to be better.

“We had a plan coming into this event, to show the judges why she deserves to be on the podium by clearly demonstrating good amplitude, good control and strong grabs and its great we were able to do just that.

“We came out today and wanted to set the tone from the start, kicking off with her best trick in the first run (left double 10 safety) to put the pressure on the rest of the field, and then go from there,” he continued.

“It’s great she managed to stick to the plan and execute some really solid jumps.”

Teammate Joey Ellis was also in action today in the men’s big air event, the 17-year-old from Thredbo wrapped up his Youth Olympic campaign with a 5th place with a score of 134.00.

A daily wrap of results will be posted on www.olympics.com.au. Keep up to date across the website and Australian Olympic Team social channels, and watch live on 9Now and Stan Sport.

• Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games – Australian Team Fast Facts
• Australia’s largest ever Winter Youth Olympic Games (WYOG) Team will compete in Gangwon, South Korea from 19 January to 1 February 2024.
• The 47-strong Team will compete across eight disciplines: Biathlon, Figure Skating, Short Track Speed Skating, Ice Hockey, Snowboard, Cross-Country Skiing, Alpine and Freestyle Skiing.
• The Australian Team is made up on 31 females and 16 males, aged between 14 and 18, with an average age of 15.8
• The Gangwon 2024 Games will see the first all-Australian ice hockey team to represent Australia at a Youth Olympic Games
• Australia has won 7 medals over the Innsbruck 2012, Lillehammer 2016 and Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games: 1 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze.
• 10 Australian Youth Olympic Team members have gone on to represent Australia at the Winter Olympic Games: Emily Arthur (Snowboard), Alex Ferlazzo (Luge), Greta Small (Alpine Skiing), Lucy Glanville (Biathlon), Harry Laidlaw (Alpine Skiing), Josie Baff (Snowboard), Hugo Hinckfuss (Cross-Country Skiing), Abi Harrigan (Freestyle Skiing), Louis Muhlen-Schulte (Alpine Skiing) and Katie Parker (Alpine Skiing)
• Our Australian Team will have the benefit of being mentored by Vancouver 2010 Moguls Olympian Ramone Cooper as the Chef de Mission.
• Four-time Moguls Olympian Britteny Cox will be with the team in a mentor role through the Athlete365 Career+ program and will also assist with team operations during the Games.
• Winter Olympians Sami Kennedy-Sim and Jackie Narracott will be in Gangwon as ‘Athlete Role Models’, selected by the International Federations of winter sports on the Gangwon 2024 YOG program to mentor and support young athletes during the Games.