Woods to keep working towards Oly medal

Melissa Woods | February 6, 2022

As a child, Cooper Woods won a national bravery medal – and 10 years later he dared to dream of another big prize, finishing sixth in the men’s moguls on his Olympic debut.

Stamping himself as a new star in the sport, the Australian skier advanced through four rounds of competition in the mountains of Zhangjiakou to race in the medal round on Saturday night.

In the six-man final, he missed fifth place by just 0.02 of a point, with Swede Walter Wallberg surprisingly relegating defending Olympic champion Mikael Kingsbury to silver, while Japan’s Ikuma Horishima won bronze.

“A goal I had in the back of my head was top 10 and I would have been extremely happy with that so to make it into the top six … I’m lost for words,” an estastic Woods said.

Growing up in Pambula on the NSW far south coast, Woods won the national Pride of Australia Medal in the Child of Courage category for rescuing a drowning friend who had knocked herself out falling off a waterfall.

Hurtling down a 250m almost vertical course showed a different kind of bravery but the 21-year-old was almost rewarded with another medal.

He said was already thinking ahead to Cortina, Italy, which will host the next Olympics in 2026.

“The boys who won the medals are the ones on the tour who we look up to, they’re the ones who are consistently up the top and we’re always striving to be like those guys,” Woods told AAP.

“Now that I know that I’m up there, I can work on new things over the next four years like lifting my air package and adding extra spins so over the next four years I will be doing what those boys are doing.”

Woods has been mentored over the past 12 months by Wallabies great John Eales, with the two paired together as part of the Sport Australia Hall Of Fame scholarship program.

While no skier, Eales has been helping Woods deliver some results under pressure with no bigger stage than the Olympics.

Another mentor for Woods is Matt Graham, who cut a tragic figure at the moguls course after failing to make it out of qualifying.

Graham was looking for his second Olympic moguls medal after a silver in PyeongChang four years ago, but was left in tears.

The 27-year-old had an interrupted build-up to Beijing, requiring surgery on his collarbone after a World Cup fall in Sweden in December but said the pain of his performance eclipsed any broken bone.

Woods said he was hurting for his teammate.

“On this team we’re one big family and Matt is an older brother to me – he’s taught me a lot and helped me become the person I am today,” Woods said.

“Seeing him not being able to do his job to the best of his ability, it’s heartbreaking for me because I know the work and the sacrifice that he’s done throughout the years to be at the top level, so I’m devastated for him.”

Woods came into the Beijing Games eyeing a top 10 result and was thrilled to reach the super six final for only the second time in his short career – with perfect timing at the Olympics.

“That was an awesome night,” Woods said.

“It was something that I’ve been working toward since I was a young teenager.

“A goal I had in the back of my head was top 10 and I would have been extremely happy with that so to make it into the top six … I’m lost for words.”