Olympics
After the disappointing result for Jakara Anthony in the moguls, the Australian dug deep and came back stronger. The 26-year-old came back from a crash on Thursday to win the inaugural Olympic dual moguls on Saturday, February 14, while Team USA’s Jaelin Kauf and Elizabeth Lemley took home silver and bronze.
In dual moguls, skiers face each other in an elimination-style format. Whittling the field down from 30 to the final four, skiers are paired up based on the rankings from the moguls race two days prior. Starting with what is known as the round of 32 and leading into the 1/8th, 1/4, and then semi-finals of the final four, the Small and Big Final are determined.
Dominating each round leading into the semi-finals, the Australian faced Olympic Moguls Champion Elizabeth Lemley while Jaelin Kauf faced France’s Perrine Laffont. Team USA had all four skiers advance to the quarter-finals but then Tess Johnsons and Olivia Giaccio were eliminated.
Lemley crashed after her bottom air, meaning that Anthony advanced to the Big Final to battle it out for gold or silver, while Lemley was off to the Small Final to face 2025 World Champion Perrine Laffont, who had lost out to Kauf in the semi-final.
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First up was the Small Final, which Lemley decided for herself in what looked like a very close fight for bronze. Many French fans were sure that Laffont had victory in the bag as she had crossed the finish line first, but the judging is a combination of turns (50%), air (25%), and time (25%), and Lemley had had the more difficult jumps, awarding her the bronze.
Then it moved into the Big Final of Anthony versus Kauf. It was a beautiful dual to watch, with both skiers putting down cork-7s on the top air, a fierce and fast mid-section with some mistakes by both skiers, and a back-x with grab on the bottom air. The crowd was holding its breath as the judges reconvened before announcing the winner. And it was Anthony with 20 points versus Kauf with 15 and the Australian crowd in Livigno exploded. A second medals in mogul skiing for team Australia and the third of the 2026 Olympic campaign after snowboard cross gold athlete Josie Baff had claimed gold the day prior. Anthony is now Australia’s only two-time gold medalist at the Winter Olympics after having won gold in 2022 in moguls in Beijing.
For Jaelin Kauf, it marks the third Olympic silver of her career after claiming silver in 2022 in Beijing and silver in moguls two days ago. Lemley has backed up her gold from Thursday with a second medal—this time bronze—making both skiers the first moguls skiers ever to claim two medals at the same Olympics.
The men’s dual moguls will be held tomorrow, Sunday, February 15 in which the Australians are surely a medals candidate.
Team USA will have all four athletes—Nick Page, Charlie Mickl, Landon Wendler, and Dylan Walczyk—competing in the dual moguls.
