On the snowy, mountainous terrain of South Korea's Gangwon over the weekend, two Australian freestyle skiers made major breakthroughs in their budding careers.
Jindabyne's Lottie Lodge and Sydney's Daisy Thomas starred at the Winter Youth Olympics, grabbing silver medals in the women's dual moguls and women's freeski big air respectively.
Lodge, 17, shared the podium with two Americans — gold medallist Elizabeth Lemley and bronze medallist Abby McLarnon — as dual moguls made its Winter Youth Olympics debut.
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Thomas, 16, won Australia's first-ever big air medal in Winter Youth Olympics history. She was beaten to the gold medal by Italy's Flora Tabanelli, with Germany's Muriel Mohr claiming bronze.
"I was so excited to ski against Lemley in the big final. It was so much fun," Lodge said.
"I came into today just wanting to ski consistently and do the same runs I was doing in training. That is what I was focusing on in the start gate.
"I also just wanted to go out there and do my own run, not worry about what the person next to me was doing, and I think I did that.
"I am just so stoked to represent Australia and to come away with a silver medal."
Watch the Winter Youth Olympic Games of Gangwon 2024 live on 9Now and Stan Sport.
https://twitter.com/SnowAust/status/1751485151824035956
Thomas became Australia's third medallist of Gangwon 2024, with Abbey Wilson and William Martin combining for bronze in the snowboard cross team competition about a week earlier, before Lodge took home silver.
"I'm really, really happy. I stomped my first run and it gave me a lot of confidence for the next two runs," Thomas said.
Thomas' silver medal took Australia's all-time Winter Youth Olympics medal tally to 10.
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