Australia’s wait for a Winter Olympian to successfully defend their title continues with moguls superstar Jakara Anthony sensationally bombing in the final at the Milan-Cortina Games.
Beijing gold medallist Anthony was the raging favourite to go back-to-back and win Australia’s first medal in Italy on Wednesday (Thursday morning AEDT).
Instead, she became Australia’s fifth Olympic champion who was unable to win successive titles.
Anthony looked a gold medal lock in the early rounds and delivered a moguls masterclass in the first final, scoring a whopping 83.96 which was more than three points clear of the next best skier.
But in the eight-skier super final she skidded off midway down the Livigno course and while she was able to complete her run, she finished last with judges awarding just 60.81 points.
Her Aussie teammate Charlotte Wilson (75.17) came sixth, as the US celebrated a shock one-two with Liz Lemley taking gold with a top score of 82.30 and Jaelin Kauf silver (80.77).
French 2018 Olympic champion Perrine Laffont won bronze.
“I’m bummed, obviously,” said the 27-year-old, who looked shell-shocked at the bottom of the course while her rivals celebrated.
“I’m really proud of the skiing that I was able to do on the course and I think I was skiing and jumping at such a high level and skiing with good speed.
“I think I really had what it took to take that top step, showed that in the first couple of rounds, but yeah, I just didn’t put it down on that last one when it counted.
“I had more to give … so I was just pretty bummed mostly that I didn’t get to show everyone what I could do in there. ”
Anthony said she wasn’t sure what caused her stumble.
“I’ve got to go back and watch the video and kind of work it out, but I think I just made a move,” the world No.1 said.
“I mean, instinctively you kind of want to stretch your foot to a mogul to get control, but you don’t want to do that and I think that’s what I did in there.”
The Victorian product said she didn’t think the pressure of her historic quest had affected her skiing.
“I felt good, obviously pretty nervous but I’d like to think everyone here is nervous but it just means you care about what you’re doing and you’re doing something pretty bloody big.”
Anthony will at least get another chance to win a medal in Milan-Cortina with dual moguls added to the Olympic program.
In that event, skiers race head-to-head against each other with the winner moving on and the loser eliminated.
“It’s kind of nice that we’ve got the dual movements, I’ve been saying it’s not four years to wait ’til the next opportunity it’s only three days, so definitely looking forward to that, but I’m sure there’ll be a few girls out there looking for redemption,” Anthony said.
