Valentino Guseli, and Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore headline a golden weekend

Australia's winter athletes continued their rise on the snow and ice with medals won at major snow and ice events, including a first Big Air gold for Valentino Guseli

Six Australians walked away with medals this past weekend, setting the building blocks for an incredible post Olympic season for Australia's best winter athletes.

Aussies spin the JGPF right round

Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore headed into the Junior Grand Prix Final in Turin Italy looking to become the second Australian pairs team to claim gold at the event, following in the footsteps of Anastasia Ekaterina and Harley Windsor in 2017.

Following a rocky short program to Kerry Muzzey's Architect of the Mind, the duo sat in second with a score of 60.19 behind Americans Sophia Baram and Daniel Tioumentsev.

Three points off the pace headed into the free skate Golubeva and Giotopoulos Moore needed to pull off a performance closer to that of their winning free skate at the Warsaw Cup last month.

Skating to Sing Sing Sing, the Australians put together one of their career-best performances, the senior competitions earlier in the season working in their favour receiving a score of 121.18 for a combined score of 181.37 to win gold.

The pair were in the mixed zone when they found out they'd won their first major championship with Golubeva sharing how focused they were following the short program.

“We are satisfied, today we tried to do our best, 100 per cent because we could not perform well in the Short Program,” Golubeva said. “Today we tried to give all the strength we had to put into this program.”

Giotopoulos Moore turned his outlook to the second half of the season with the team preparing to head to the Junior and Senior World Championships.

"We feel good, confident, going into the next period of the season, [with] all the championship events," the 20-year-old said.

"We have Four Continents first, which will be interesting to compete with the top senior teams, [which] will be a difficult challenge for us. For Junior Worlds, I think we're prepared, we're ready... hopefully, we'll be going to Senior Worlds as well."

High-Value Valentino

Valentino Guseli made history at his first World Cup of the 2022/2023 season becoming the first Australian to win a World Cup big air event in Edmonton, Canada.

Guseli had light duties this weekend, only entered in the big air event, however, the teen has made a name for himself as a three-discipline up-and-coming star competing in the big air, slopestyle and halfpipe events throughout this season.

Sitting in fourth after qualifying, the 17-year-old secured his place in the final in second place with a score of 148.50 points.

Under the bright lights of Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton pressure was on following the first jump, a backside triple cork 1620, scoring a 63.25, his score dropping due to a shaky landing.

With scores being calculated as the best two of three jumps, Guseli needed to throw down two massive jumps and put himself in the box seat to do so following his ridiculously clean frontside double cork 1440 that earned him 85.50 points.

However, while some boarders were all smiles, Guseli was the picture of determination following his second jump, focused on his shot at the podium. The 17-year-old went for the backside triple cork 1620 again. stomping the landing to earn a score of 87 points and a combined score of 172.50 to the cheers of the Canadian crowd.

It was a long wait at the bottom of the hill where Guseli watched the final three athletes pull off their final jumps and when the United States' Chris Corning's final jump score of 78.5 for a combined score of 172 Guseli officially became a World Cup winner for the first time.

Guseli and Corning were joined on the podium by Canadian Nicolas Laframboise with 168 points.

The 17-year-old recognised his hard work over the past few seasons following the win and turned his attention to his next World Cup event.

“Oh my goodness, I am so hyped right now,” Guseli said.

“I woke up this morning and was just really hoping that I could put my tricks down today, and now I am just so relieved and happy.

“It’s been a long and very bumpy road the last three years trying to work my way to some podiums and I have finally got a win, and I am so hyped, I am hoping to just keep it rolling to the next comps.

“Thank you to everyone that’s helped me up to this point.”

At 17 years of age, the victory also makes him the youngest ever male to win World Cup gold for Australia in any discipline.

Joy for Jakara two weeks in a row

In back-to-back weeks Jakara Anthony has claimed World Cup gold, this time in Idre Fjäll, Sweden.

It was a dominant first day of competition for the 2022 Olympic champion, leading from qualifying through to the second final, to claim her second win of the season and sixth World Cup victory of her career.

In the super-final, Anthony again had the highest scoring turns and jumps to score 81.75, joined on the podium by Anri Kawamura of Japan with a score of 80.02 points in second place, with France's Perrine Laffont in third scoring 76.08.

Following the moguls event, Anthony admitted changes had to be made from the week before.

“What a way to kick off the season," the 24-year-old said.

“I am really proud of how I have been able to progress over the days we have been on the course, there has been a lot of figuring out to do and a lot of changes to make, and I think I am making progress in the right direction.”

The following day the Aussie took to the slopes again for the dual moguls, donning the blue bib as the reigning World Cup Champion from the 2021/2022 season.

Anthony cruised through the round of 16 and quarter-finals, set for a semi-final match-up against Elizabeth Lemley of the United States.

Lemley had superior speed finishing a second ahead of Anthony and her tight middle turns section didn't make up the difference for the Australian in the judges' eyes with five of the seven judges awarding the win to Lemley.

Anthony then faced Laffont in the bronze medal contest. It was hard to split the pair with both Anthony and Laffont playing to their strengths but the win was handed down to the French woman with the scores being split 17-18.

In the men's event, Matt Graham lead the way once again, reaching the super-final and finishing in sixth place, while Cooper Woods narrowly missed his second World Cup super-final berth, finishing in seventh.

Jackson Harvey built on his performance in Ruka with an 11th-place finish at his second World Cup, and George Murphy recovered from some of the errors last week to finish in 35th.

In the men's duals event, Murphy was the first to fall, going down in the round of 64 against Sweden's Albin Holmgren. Surviving the first round of his first World Cup dual moguls event Jackson went down in the Round of 32 against Finland's Jimi Salonen.

Woods looked in control in his first two rounds but a mistake in the round of 16 caused him to lose 35-0 to Cole Jackson of the United States. Meanwhile, Graham progressed through to the quarter-finals but was edged out by another American Nick Page who won the moguls event the day prior.

Great Scott, That's A-Peel-ing

Danielle Scott and Laura Peel were still in Ruka, Finland for a European Cup double-header this weekend with Scott forgoing the first event while Peel earned two top-five finishes.

In the first event on Friday Peel's jumped a back full full for her first jump, scoring 77.49. For her second the Australian attempted a back layout full but had trouble with the landing only scoring 49.01.

The first score stood, putting Peel in fourth place, with the win going to Canada's Flavie Aumond who scored 86.62 with a back full full on her first jump.

Scott was back for the second event on Saturday attempting a back double-full full in the first qualification run and scoring 95.52, qualifying in first while Peel attempted the same jump but struggled on the landing scoring 58.51, sitting in 12th and needing to make up the difference with her second jump.

Scott went for a back full full with her second jump to score 86.31, her judged score of 27.4 actually 0.3 points higher than her first jump but offset by the degree of difficulty multiplier.

Meanwhile, Peel recovered from her first jump, also attempting a back full full and scoring 83.47 to qualify through to the final in fifth.

With just one attempt on offer in the final Peel and Scott both chose to pull out their respective triple-twisting double-flip jumps. With Scott hitting the back double-full full and Peel the back full double-full.

Both Australians comfortably landed their jumps nabbing a spot on the podium each with Scott scoring 88.47 and Peel 84.60. Only Canada's Marion Thenault was able to best the Aussies with a score of 97.29 for an incredibly clean back full double-full.