Central Coast mogul skier Matt Graham has taken two medals for Australia at the 2023 FIS World Championships in Bakuriani, Georgia.
Graham took a silver medal on January 25, following up with a bronze on January 26, becoming just the second Australian to ever win two medals at a FIS World Championships after Dale Begg-Smith’s gold and silver in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, in 2007.
Graham has now collected an impressive four World Championship medals across his career and has won at least one medal at each of the past three World titles, which are held every two years.
On January 25, the 2018 Olympic silver medallist placed fifth in the first round of finals with a score of 85.60 points, and then stepped it up in the super-final with a huge score of 88.90 points together with the fastest speed in 22.49 seconds.
Edging out Graham to take the win by just 0.92 points in the last run of the day was the defending World Champion Canadian Mikael Kingsbury, with Walter Walberg of Sweden rounding out the podium in third with a score of 88.52 points.
“It’s pretty surreal to be honest,” Graham, 28, said.
“Everyone was skiing so well today and so fast.
“In my last run I felt like I had to find three points on top of the other guys, so I just rally planted that top air well, charged though the middle section and then was just hanging on to get off the bottom air and managed to put it to my feet.
“When the score came up and it was over 88, that was awesome;, I knew I had put the pressure on the top guys and managed to hold onto second place, so I am over the moon.
“My expectations were to come here and enjoy the experience, and really focus on putting down clean runs that I am happy with, and the results would take care of themselves.
“If I put that run down and came fifth place then so be it, but fortunately enough it was good for a silver, so I am really happy.”
The following day, Graham was full of confidence heading into the dual moguls, which will feature in the Olympic Winter Games for the first time in 2026 at Milano-Cortina, Italy.
Graham had victories in the round of 32 against British skier Thomas Gerken-Schofield and Kosuke Sugimoto in the round of 16 to reach the quarter final stage.
After defeating Nick Page of the USA in the quarter-final, Graham then faced 2022 Olympic gold medallist Walter Wallberg of Sweden in the semi-final, going down 14-21 points.
In the duel for the bronze medal, Graham defeated Pavel Kolmakov of Kazakhstan with a score of 20-15 for his second medal at the World Championships.
“To go back-to-back in any World Cup or World Championships is awesome,” Graham said.
“Now we have the opportunity to do it at the Olympics in three years’ time; assuming I am there – that’s what I will be chasing.”
Grahm said the duals contest was “pretty exhausting”.
“There are a lot of runs in duals and the intensity was so high, and it’s been a long week with three training days and two competition days,” he said.
“At the top I was just trying to psych myself up and get the legs firing each run and just happy to make it down and get through all the rounds and come away with a bronze medal.
“Strength and conditioning off snow is so important, and now having duals at the Olympics it’s even more important to have to put runs down back-to-back on such a quick timeline, so I guess I need to get home and back in the gym.”
Verified source: Media release, Feb 26, 2023, Olympic Winter Institute of Australia