ALPINE, cross country and freestyle mogul skiers from across the Alpine Shire will help carry the hopes of our nation when the Winter Olympics kicks off in China on Friday.
Mt Beauty's Phil Bellingham (cross country) and Britt Cox (moguls), and Porepunkah's Greta Small (alpine) are among Australia's 44–strong team – our third largest ever – ready to represent Australia at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
The Games are Small's third successive Olympics and also mark some particularly special milestones for Cox and Bellingham.
It will be Cox's fourth Games – joining a group of just seven Australian winter athletes to have attended four or more Games – including fellow Falls Creek mogul magician Adrian Costa (1992–2002).
Bellingham is competing in his third Games in cross country skiing, equaling the most by an Australian with Anthony Evans (1992–1998) and Esther Bottomley (2006–2014).
Bottomley, currently teaching at Secondary College, will be following the Games closely as husband Valerio Leccardi is there coaching Bellingham and his fellow cross country skiers.
Casey Wright is among them – a familiar sight at Falls Creek where she trains with the Australian Cross Country ski team.
And like Bellingham, Bottomley and Leccardi, Wright is a member of the Mt Beauty–based Birkenbeiner Nordic Ski Club.
Club president Ewen Silvester said the club – with more than 400 members – has a long and proud history of international representation, and is looking forward to watching Bellingham and Wright compete.
Mr Silvester said club member and local resident Paul Kovacs is also in China with te Australian team, providing support to cross country competitors as a wax technician.
"In addition to the Olympians, five other club members – Katarina Paul, Anna Trnka, Hannah Price, Adam Barnett and Nick Blackwell – are competing in Europe," Mr Silvester said.
"Our club would like to thank the Mt Beauty Rotary Club which has provided skiers with some financial support."
BRITT COX – FREESTYLE SKIING
Event: Moguls
Olympic history: Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, PeyongChang 2018
Highlights: 2017 – World Champion, World Cup Moguls Crystal Globe Winner, World Cup Freestyle Overall Crystal Globe Winner
AS a 20–year–old in 2015 Britt Cox became just the second Australian female win a medal in moguls at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships, after Maria Despas (silver) in 2001 at Whistler–Blackcomb in British Columbia.
Putting together three solid runs for bronze at the 2015 titles in Kreischberg, Austria, Britt was already a dual Olympian with the added fame of being Australia's youngest competitor at the Vancouver 2010 Games.
She headed into her third Olympics in 2018 at PyeongChang having upped the ante at the 2017 FIS (International Ski Federation) Freestyle World Ski Championships, winning gold in moguls and becoming the first Australian to do it.
As No.3 in the world, she came 5th at PyeongChang which equalled her 5th placing in Sochi four years earlier. These results are the highest by an Australian female mogul skier at an Olympics.
She has the staggering record of 75 World Cup starts, 16 podium finishes and 9 gold medals since her first at Deer Valley (USA) in 2010 where she finished 34th.
Her first FIS–sanctioned event was in 2004 at Mt Buller.
Britt says being surrounded by a ski–mad family tearing up and down the runs at Falls Creek gave her the perfect start in the sport.
She also says that winning an Australia Sport Hall of Fame scholarship in 2012 was one of the cornerstones that helped propel her to the top of the world.
Her dominance, particularly in the 2016–17 season, earned her the FIS Crystal Globe in 2017 as the overall series winner.
That was off the back of eight World Cup wins.
But it hasn't all been a breeze.
Britt had a bad crash in the second day of competition in Thaiwoo, China, in the December 2019 World Cup – losing consciousness and sustaining injuries to her ribs and collarbone.
The collarbone required surgery, which forced her out of the remaining events in the 2019–20 World Cup season.
Britt made her return to competition at the opening World Cup event of the 2020–21 season in Ruka, Finland, finishing in 11th place.
The highlight of her season was no doubt the World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where she finished 7th.
She started World Cup competition in January 2022 with a 13th place finish in Tremblant, Canada, and 12th at Deer Valley a week later.
PHIL BELLINGHAM – CROSS COUNTRY SKIING
Events: 30km Skiathlon, Freestyle Sprint, 15km Classic, Team Sprint, 50km Freestyle
Olympic history: Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018
Highlights: Dual Olympian, 5x World Championships
PHIL Bellingham began skiing when he was just 18 months–old, having grown up in Mount Beauty.
He got into competitive cross–country skiing at six and won his first national title at 21.
After competing at his first World Championships in 2013, Bellingham went on to make his Olympic debut at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, where he placed 76th in the 15km classic and 55th in the individual sprint.
He then joined fellow Olympian Callum Watson in the team sprint, where they finished 12th in their semi–final and 21st overall.
Four years later, Bellingham competed across four events at his second Olympic Games at PyeongChang.
Despite being a sprint specialist, he took to the start line in the men's 50km classic on his 27th birthday.
Arguably one of the toughest Winter Olympic events on the schedule, the men's 50km classic is a battle of endurance and mental exhaustion.
After a solid start, Bellingham placed 54th and finished the course in just over two and a half hours.
The dual Olympian went on to finish 65th in the men's sprint classic qualifying, 77th in the men's 15km free and 13th in the men's team sprint semi–final with Watson.
Up to Beijing 2022, 30 year old Bellingham has competed in an impressive five World Ski Championships.
In the 2021 Australian winter he won the FIS Australia–New Zealand Continental Cup series for the sixth time and was also Australian champion in both the 15km classic and sprint freestyle events.
GRETA SMALL – ALPINE SKIING
Events: Alpine Combined, Super G, Downhill
Olympic history: Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018
Highlights: Returning from injury and recording a personal best downhill result at PyeongChang 2018
POREPUNKAH resident and Mt Hotham Racing Squad member Greta Small is Australia's top female alpine skier and will be competing in her third Winter Olympic Games at Beijing.
Born in Wangaratta, Small started skiing at 18 months with her family at Mount Buffalo, and she was a regular fixture on the podium from a young age at interschool competitions.
In 2012 she was selected to compete at the inaugural Youth Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria and finished seventh in the slalom and super g events, and 13th in the giant slalom and combined.
That appearance was closely followed by her World Championships debut where she was the second youngest in the field.
In the 2013 season she claimed silver in super g at the Junior World Championships and bronze in slalom.
When Sochi 2014 came around, 18–year–old Small became the first Australian to compete in all five alpine events at an Olympic Games.
Unfortunately the following year she tore her ACL and spent a grueling 12 months in rehab, returning to international competition in late 2016, only to once again tear her ACL at a PyeongChang Olympic test event in January 2017.
With 12 months between Small's second ACL reconstruction surgery and the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, she attacked her rehab and made a return to competition.
She chose to focus on speed events for PyeongChang 2018 and placed 20th in downhill – Australia's best result by a woman in the discipline at an Olympic Winter Games.
Small recorded multiple personal best results throughout the 2018–19 season, including a 20th place finish at the 2019 World Championships.
However, March 2019 brought another setback for Small with a major crash at training which resulted in her third ACL tear.
She made her return in Europe during early 2021 and consistently moved up the ranks in speed events, capping off the season with a career–best 15th at the 2021 World Ski Championships.
Small's best performance so far in the 2021–2022 season have come in the downhill discipline, where she finished in 41st place in Zauchensee, Austria, and also in Val d'Isere, France.
