BY PAT GRAHAM
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — Jakara Anthony doesn’t see anyone racing in front of her. She also avoids looking at any scores.
The approach keeps the stress away and frees you from skiing like this: to a gold medal.
The 23-year-old Australian almost made it look easy on Sunday as she stormed through the bumps as the night’s last competitor to clinch the women’s moguls title at the Beijing Olympics.
Anthony’s backflip with a bottom grab secured victory on the Secret Garden Olympic Course. She knew it immediately too. Maybe not so much that she secured the top spot, but that it was good enough to be worthy of victory.
“I was just so happy and satisfied with it and whatever the outcome, I would be thrilled,” she said. “Seeing the #1 pop up next to my name was amazing.”
Her 83.09 score beat Jaelin Kauf, who was poised to win Team USA’s first gold medal at this year’s Winter Games. Russia’s Anastasiia Smirnova took bronze and defending champion Perrine Laffont of France was fourth.
Anthony joins Dale Begg-Smith as the only Australian to have won the Olympic mogul event. Begg-Smith earned his title at the 2006 Torino Games.
Her reward could be treating herself to one of her favorite places - the beach.
“If I had to go somewhere now, I would be happy about warm weather,” said Anthony after the competition in freezing temperatures.
Maybe an ice cream too. A festive hit.
Anthony needed to be at his best after Kauf’s electric run right in front of her. Although Kauf was quicker from top to bottom, Anthony’s form seemed a little cleaner and her jumps a little more difficult.
Still, it was an incredible Olympic feat for Kauf, who competed as the top-ranked mogul skier at the Pyeongchang Games four years ago, only to finish a disappointing seventh place.
The difference was simple: focus.
“I skied to win every single lap,” Kauf said this time about her strategy. “I wanted to be 100% on point with my skiing with no regrets and every time.”
Kauf is the next generation of go-getters in her family. Her mother, Patti, and father, Scott, were collecting many mogul titles back then. But she now has the finest prize of all - an Olympic silver medal.
The hardware goes well with the gold and silver Olympic-style necklaces her mother made for her for good luck ahead of each of the last two Winter Games.
“It goes really well with it,” says Kauf with a smile. “I’m so happy right now. I honestly can’t believe it.”
Olivia Giaccio of the United States reached the final round and finished sixth. Hannah Soar narrowly missed the final lap.
Anthony added the big day for the southern hemisphere at Genting Snow Park. Earlier and just a short walk from the moguls, Zoi Sadowski Synnott took New Zealand’s first gold at the Winter Games in women’s slopestyle competition, while Australia’s Tess Coady took bronze.
In the slopestyle race, American Julia Marino looked set for gold ahead of Sadowski Synnott’s winning run. Same goes for buying before Anthony got through in the clutch.
“I’m just over the moon,” said Anthony. “I just can’t find the words.”
American teenager Kai Owens made her first official ride on the Olympic course on Sunday after she recently sat out the opening round of qualifying with a swollen eye sustained in a nasty training accident. Owens earned a place in the first and second final rounds before being eliminated.
It’s been quite a journey for Owens, the 17-year-old American who has returned to her native country for the Beijing Games. Abandoned as an infant in a town square in China, she was placed in an orphanage and adopted by a Colorado couple when she was about 16 months old.