Aussie Baff storms to snowboard cross gold medal
Melissa Woods |
Josie Baff has been left wiping away tears of joy after doubling Australia’s Olympic gold medal haul by storming to a superb victory in the women’s snowboard cross event at Milan-Cortina.
The 23-year-old cried and jumped in delight on the podium on Friday after becoming the first Australian woman to medal in the event, with her triumph coming less than 24 hours after the shock win by Cooper Woods in the moguls.
It’s the first time since 2010 in Vancouver that Australia have celebrated two golds in a Games.
Baff said she was inspired by Woods’ triumph, with the pair having been former classmates in Jindabyne over the winter term and also crossing paths in junior surf life-saving.
Baff’s boyfriend, Canadian Eliot Grondin, had also won silver in the men’s snowboard cross a day earlier.
“I actually grew up doing surf lifesaving and Cooper was doing that as well so I saw him a lot down in Pambula and I know him and his family super well,” Baff said.
“Seeing that yesterday definitely sparked a little fire in me and I thought if he can do it I can do it too.”
Baff was brilliantly daring in both her semi-final and the four-racer medal race at Livigno Snow Park, as she slipped through on the inside with immaculate overtaking manoeuvres to win both races.
Baff, the world championship runner-up in 2023, had to do it the hard way too, after revealing she had suffered flu earlier in the week.
She pipped both the racer who beat her for gold three years ago, Czech star Eva Adamczykova, and reigning world champ and 2018 Olympic gold medallist, Italian Michela Moioli, in a thrilling final.
Baff felt she earned the win through her hard work since her Beijing disappointment, when she was left in tears after her campaign ended in the opening race.
“It’s very amazing – I would like to say that I can’t believe it but I kind of can,” she said.
“I feel like I deserve it and I put in a lot of hard work so I knew I could do it but to actually have the medal around my neck is very, very cool.
“It’s definitely something that I’ve been working towards for a very long time and my team has been helping me achieve that every step of the way.”
It was Australia’s second ever snowboard cross medal after Jarryd Hughes took silver in the men’s race in Pyeongchang in 2018, while Torah Bright is the only other woman to medal, winning two in the halfpipe.
Baff’s father Peter coached both Bright and his daughter as a junior.
Baff had arrived in strong form, sitting in the world No.2 ranking, but she had a slow start to the day and finished only 17th in the seedings.
That meant she raced against new mum Adamczykova, the top seed, all the way through.
“I was definitely disappointed as I knew I was super fast on this track and it was annoying because I wanted to win the time trial but to win the gold medal is even better so I’m super happy,” said Baff.
“When I saw I had Eva in a first round it’s definitely a tough first heat … but I knew that it could also wake me up and work in my favour.
“It meant that we were racing from the first round and we were able to lock into that mindset really early on.
Baff showed her class to win her first race and move through to the quarter-finals, where she finished second in a four-race field in a heart-stopping photo finish.
She wasn’t headed from there, charging through her semi-final, and then making a move midway through the final with a superb overtake to take the gold by 0.04 seconds.
AAP
