How Fundraising Fuelled Australia's Winter Olympic Success

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games were historic for our Australian team in more ways than one. Our Olympic team was made up of more women than ever before, with women representing 62.3% of the squad. Milano Cortina was also our most successful Winter Games in history, with Aussies taking home six medals (three gold, two silver and one bronze), smashing the previous record of four, which was set at Beijing 2022.

It was also the first year that the Australian Sports Foundation teamed with the Australian Olympic Committee on the Aspiring Australian Olympian Funding Initiative, encouraging athletes to use fundraising as an additional source of support to help offset the costs associated with competing at an elite level.

In the lead-up to Milano Cortina, many Aussie athletes took up the opportunity to fundraise. On the ASF platform, we tracked their fundraising activity between 1^st of June 2025 and 23^rd of February 2026, to highlight the impact of community support.

Olympic Hopefuls

In total, 53 Olympic hopefuls used the ASF platform to help fund their journey towards qualification.

Together, these athletes raised:

$635,943 in total
$12,000 average per person
$10,000 median amount

The highest raised by an individual athlete was an enormous $77,136.

Qualified Olympians

Of the 55 athletes that were selected to represent Australia at Milano Cortina, 22 Olympians from 11 different sports fundraised on the ASF platform.

Together, these athletes raised:

$296,368 in total
$13,471 average per person
10,665 median amount

How this helps

In Australia, winter sports operate on a much smaller scale than their summer counterparts, with fewer athletes, facilities and funding pathways. With a short domestic snow season, many elite winter athletes spend long periods in Europe or North America, training and competing where conditions allow for year-round preparation. As a result, many take on significant personal costs to access the training, equipment and international competition opportunities needed to reach the highest level of their sport.

For athletes like bobsledder Sarah Blizzard, Olympic qualification would have been nearly impossible without the ASF platform.

“Being self-funded is tough in this sport. Staying in bobsleigh would’ve been really difficult without the funds I’ve raised through the ASF.”

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With the ASF platform, supporters can make tax-deductible donations, giving them a stronger incentive to contribute and helping campaigns go further. Because fundraising is managed online, athletes can continue to raise funds while training and competing overseas, without the added admin burden.

This also opens the door to a broader network of supporters, extending beyond immediate friends and family to a wider community willing to back their journey.

For athletes spending months abroad, these advantages make a tangible difference. Fundraising becomes a practical, scalable way to offset the real costs of training, travel and competition.

Without that support, Australia’s Milano Cortina team could have looked very different.