Australia's winter sports stars are dominating, led by bobsleigh ace Bree Walker, who delivered a commanding performance in Lillehammer, Norway, to triumph at the monobob World Cup event.
Walker clocked the fastest times in both heats overnight, utterly dominating the field.
The win marks Walker's fourth career World Cup victory. More impressively, it cements her remarkable record on the historic 1994 Lillehammer Olympic track, where she now boasts three consecutive World Cup race victories.
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The 33-year-old logged her best push starts of the season, ranking third in both heats.
From there, she set the pace, blitzing the track with a first run of 53.86 seconds and following up with a 54.02-second run.
This translated into a combined time of 1:47.88 for the overall victory.
Austria's Katrin Beierl grabbed second place with a combined time of 1:48.32, while Germany's Laura Nolte rounded out the podium, taking third with a final time of 1:48.36.
Speaking afterwards, Walker expressed confidence in her performance, while also highlighting her special connection to the Lillehammer track.
"It was a great race today, I was really happy with both runs and both pushes, it was probably one of the best races I've done," she said.
"I really enjoy Lillehammer, we spend a lot of time here in pre-season, so it feels like coming home each time we come back.
I enjoy the little nuances of the track and being able to put that all together in a run. Often, I know I have done a fast run before I've even crossed the line if I've been able to execute certain parts of the track.
Walker currently sits second in the overall World Cup standings following the third event of the 2025/2026 season, trailing only Nolte by 18 points.
"The competition is so tough, we're going to be jumping around all year in the rankings," Walker said.
"We will just keep taking things race by race."
Walker will also contest the two-woman bobsleigh event in Lillehammer.
Meanwhile, Team Australia opened the snowboard cross World Cup season strongly, delivering powerful performances in Cervinia, Italy.
Both hailing from Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains, Josie Baff and Adam Lambert soared onto the podium, each claiming a bronze medal.
With their results, Baff continues to stack up the hardware, securing her 15th career World Cup podium, while Lambert proved his consistency by locking down his seventh.
Setting herself up by qualifying second, Baff immediately asserted her dominance, winning her quarter-final heat before powering through a semi-final thriller.
In the tense semi final, Baff managed to just edge out Austria's Pia Zerkhold in a photo finish, securing her ticket to the big final.
In a nail-biting medal battle, victory ultimately went to France's Lea Casta. Italy's Michela Moioli snatched second place, trailing by a razor-thin 0.07 seconds, while Baff had to settle for a hard-fought third place, just 0.14 seconds shy of gold.
"I love the first race of the season, I am eager to get back racing, and I want to beat all of the girls, so I think that's a big motivating factor for me," Baff said afterwards.
"I have been trying to work on qualifying higher, and I was really happy to come out with second yesterday, and that meant I had my choice of gate all day in finals.
"My plan was to win the start section, but in the final I made a mistake in turn one, and that cost me the lead, then I adapted pretty quickly and tried to get in the draft, and came down to all four us coming out of the second last turn so it was pretty wild and a good fight to the finish."
Lambert also dominated early, winning every single one of his heats.
The 28-year-old then executed a masterclass in the semi final, where he pulled off a brilliant late pass, using his strong drafting technique to power himself from third place right into first.
In the men's big final, Lambert battled hard, ultimately crossing the line in third place, just behind French brothers Jonas and Aidan Chollet.
"Today was awesome, yesterday in qualifying the early runners can get a slower course, and I made a mistake, so to be able to get the second run down (in 23rd), and then come out and prove to everyone that I was better than my number predicted, it's awesome, I love it," he said.
"We were discussing last night in race strategy, there was going to be a lot of draft out of turn five, and plenty of opportunities to gain speed, but overall it was pretty much decided at the finish line."
The rest of the Australian contingent also put up a strong fight in Cervinia.
Mia Clift and Cam Bolton both made it through to the quarter-finals, ultimately finishing ninth and 14th respectively.
Other Aussies just missing out on the finals included Amber Essex (24th), James Johnstone (47th), Declan Dent (48th), and Cameron Turner (52nd), while Abbey Wilson recorded a DNF in the second qualifying run.
Over at the snowboard big air World Cup in Colorado, 16-year-old Ally Hickman claimed her very first FIS World Cup medal after picking up bronze.
On Saturday, Melbourne teenager Indra Brown made history at the freeski halfpipe World Cup in China, becoming the youngest Australian ever to claim a FIS World Cup medal in any winter sport.
All of these athletes are setting their sights on the ultimate goal: the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in the Italian Alps this February.
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