Australians to Watch at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Australians to Watch at the 2026 Winter Olympics
February 05, 2026
Australia is heading to Milano Cortina with its second-largest Winter Olympic team ever, and the biggest in more than a decade. The Australian Olympic Committee has named 53 athletes for the 2026 Winter Games, including 28 Olympic debutants, five teenagers, and a record proportion of women. In fact, female athletes make up 62.3 per cent of the team, the highest share ever selected for an Australian Olympic squad across both Summer and Winter Games.
There’s also plenty of experience in the mix, with a strong contingent of returning Olympic medallists alongside athletes set to make their Games debut. Australia has won 19 Winter Olympic medals since Lillehammer 1994, and with a team this deep, diverse and in-form, there’s no shortage of reasons to tune in. Here are some of the Aussies to look out for when competition gets underway at Milano Cortina 2026.
Bree Walker
Bree Walker is in the form of her career and one of Australia’s genuine podium chances on ice for Milano Cortina. After finishing 5th in the inaugural Olympic monobob at Beijing 2022, Walker has taken a huge step forward this cycle, winning multiple World Cups and heading to her second Games ranked 2nd in the world. She will contest both the women’s monobob and the 2-woman bobsleigh and is fundraising with the Australian Sports Foundation to help cover the significant costs of training, travel and competition as she pushes for Australia’s first Olympic bobsleigh medal.
Scotty James
Most Australians are probably familiar with Scotty James. Fresh off the back of his fifth consecutive X Games gold medal, James heads to Milano Cortina as one of Australia’s most accomplished Winter Olympians and a genuine podium contender once again. This will be his fifth Olympic Games, and after bronze at PyeongChang 2018 and silver at Beijing 2022, he will be chasing the one medal that has so far eluded him.
Indra Brown
Indra Brown is set to turn heads at Milano Cortina as the youngest athlete on Australia’s Olympic team, celebrating her 16th birthday just days before the Opening Ceremony. Despite her age, she arrives ranked number one in the world in freeski halfpipe after a remarkable debut World Cup season that included multiple podiums and a win, making her the youngest Australian ever to claim a World Cup medal in a winter sport. Brown is fundraising with the Australian Sports Foundation to help cover the cost of year-round overseas training and competition, as she balances school, elite sport and the demands of preparing for her first Olympic Games.
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Jakara Anthony
Few Australians arrive at a Winter Olympics with the track record of Jakara Anthony. The reigning Olympic champion in moguls, Anthony is the world number one and Australia’s most successful freestyle skier, with 26 World Cup victories to her name.
Since her gold medal performance at Beijing 2022, she has continued to raise the bar, including a record-breaking 2023–24 season where she won 14 World Cup events and swept every Crystal Globe on offer. After overcoming a broken collarbone less than a year out from the Games, she has returned straight to the top of the podium, underlining why she remains the athlete to beat. With dual moguls now added to the Olympic program, Milano Cortina offers Anthony another chance to showcase just how far she has pushed the sport.
Adam Lambert
Adam Lambert is arriving at the 2026 Games in career-best form and currently sits world number one in snowboard cross. The Jindabyne local is heading into his third Olympics after finally breaking through for his first World Cup gold just weeks before the Games, backing it up with multiple podiums to finish the season flying. After near misses at PyeongChang and Beijing, Lambert looks primed to turn experience into results, making him a genuine medal threat in both the men’s snowboard cross and the mixed team event.
Tess Coady
Tess Coady remains one of Australia’s most exciting riders across both slopestyle and big air. She became Australia’s youngest Winter Olympic medallist with her slopestyle bronze at Beijing 2022, a moment made even more remarkable by the fact she had missed her Olympic debut four years earlier due to injury. Since then, Coady has continued to prove her versatility, collecting World Championship medals in both slopestyle and big air and returning to form after multiple injury setbacks. With a rare ability to compete at the top level in two disciplines, she brings experience, resilience and genuine podium potential to her third Olympic Games.
Lara Hamilton
Lara Hamilton will make history at the 2026 Games as Australia’s first female Olympic competitor in ski mountaineering, a sport making its Olympic debut. A Sydney-born athlete who previously represented Australia in trail running, Hamilton shifted her full focus to ski mountaineering in 2025. Splitting her time between Europe and the US, she’s delivered Australia’s strongest women’s results to date, including a 13th-place World Cup finish in the vertical event last year, the best by an Australian in the discipline.
She’ll compete in the women’s sprint and mixed relay, helping introduce Australian audiences to a fast-paced and physically demanding sport few will have seen before. Hamilton is also fundraising with the Australian Sports Foundation to support the cost of full-time Olympic preparation, including training, recovery, medical care and international competition, after stepping away from regular work to focus on Milano Cortina 2026.
Support Australia’s Winter Olympians
Behind every Olympic campaign are years of preparation and significant costs, many of which fall to athletes long before they ever reach the start line. From overseas training blocks and international competition to equipment, coaching and medical support, winter sport is largely self-funded. With the support of the Australian Sports Foundation, many Australian Winter Olympians are fundraising to help cover these costs and stay focused on performing at their best.