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All the talk coming into the Winter Olympics was about Scotty James and whether this would finally be his Olympic gold. We even have a how-to watch guide for the final. Set the alarm for 5:30 am.
But while our eyes were on the halfpipe, Cooper Woods won Australia’s first gold medal of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. And he did it in the tightest finish imaginable.
Woods claimed gold in the men’s moguls in a final that finished in a dead heat. He and Canada’s Mikaël Kingsbury both scored 83.71. The tie was broken on turns, where Woods edged Kingsbury 48.4 to 47.7. Japan’s Ikuma Horishima took bronze with 83.44.
A 0.7 difference on turns was the margin between gold and silver.
For Woods, it’s easily the biggest result of his career. The 25-year-old had only once stood on a World Cup podium and had never won an international competition. His highest season ranking in 2023/24 was 10th. He arrived in Italy as a contender, but not the headline act.
By the end of the final, he was the cleanest skier on the hill.
“There wasn’t another man in the field that was flawless,” Australian Winter Olympic Team Chef de Mission Alisa Camplin said. “Some people had a couple of harder jumps, but nobody else was flawless. Hats off to Cooper Woods.”
Woods topped Qualification 2 with 80.46, led the first final with 83.60, then produced an even better 83.71 in the super final, skiing last for the first time in his career.
“I kept telling my coach up there: I’ve got nothing to lose. Let’s get stuck into it,” Woods said. “There’s something when there’s so much pressure, where you can just kind of let it all go and just kind of embrace it.”
For a 25-year-old from the Far South Coast of NSW, it happened on the biggest stage in the sport.
“It’s something you dream of day in, day out as a kid, through the hard days, through the good days. It’s an absolute journey,” Woods said.
Australian teammate and 2018 silver medallist Matt Graham finished fifth and was first to celebrate with Woods at the bottom of the course. Jackson Harvey placed eighth in the super final, while George Murphy finished 29th in qualification.
Woods’ victory marks Australia’s 20th Winter Olympic medal and makes him the nation’s 18th Winter Olympic medallist.
The spotlight may still be on James ahead of the halfpipe final. But before the pipe has even crowned a champion, Australia already has one.
And it came from a skier who had never won on the world stage until it mattered most.
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