Jakara Anthony’s medal hopes dashed after final run mistake

Jakara Anthony can expect a hug from Australia’s other gold medal favourite Scotty James after her second Olympic title slipped away with a shock stumble in the women’s moguls final.

Beijing gold medallist Anthony was the raging favourite to go back-to-back and win Australia’s first medal in Italy on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT).

Instead, she became the nation’‘s fifth Winter Olympic champion unable to successfully defend their title and puts a dent in the Australian team’s ambitions to top their four-medal haul from 2022.

Anthony looked a gold medal lock in the early rounds and delivered a moguls masterclass in the first final, scoring a whopping 83.96 which was more than three points clear of the next best.

But in the eight-skier super final she skidded off midway down the Livigno course and finished last with judges awarding just 60.81 points.

Her Aussie teammate Charlotte Wilson (75.17) came sixth, as the US celebrated a shock one-two with Liz Lemley taking gold with a top score of 82.30 and Jaelin Kauf silver (80.77).

French 2018 Olympic champion Perrine Laffont won bronze.

“I’m bummed, obviously,” said 27-year-old Anthony, who wasn’t sure what caused her to lose her footing.

“I’m really proud of the skiing that I was able to do on the course and I think I was skiing and jumping at such a high level and skiing with good speed.

“I think I really had what it took to take that top step, showed that in the first couple of rounds, but yeah, I just didn’t put it down on that last one when it counted.”

Snowboard superstar James said he felt for Anthony, with the athletes teammates at the past three Olympics.

“I have a lot of empathy for Jakara and I just feel for her because all of us athletes have been in that position before,” he said after topping qualification in the men’s halfpipe.“She’s so surgical in the way she operates - I watch her train and she really puts the time and the effort in and you always expect to do your best when you’re set up like that.“I’m a bit sad for her honestly but she’s a trooper and a warrior and I’m sure she’ll come back even stronger and I look forward to giving her a hug when I see her.”

Anthony said she didn’t think the pressure of her historic quest had affected her.

“I felt good, obviously pretty nervous but I’d like to think everyone here is nervous but it just means you care about what you’re doing and you’re doing something pretty bloody big,” she said.

Wilson meanwhile was thrilled with her performance after the nervous debutante was near the back of the field in first qualifying run, but then showed her potential to make the super final cut.

“I think I just had my head in the right space and I was focusing more on the skiing than I guess the atmosphere and the outcome and that really worked for me,” said the Jindabyne youngster, whose sister Abbey is competing in the snowboard cross.

The pair will at least get another chance to win a medal in Milan-Cortina with dual moguls added to the Olympic program.

In that event, skiers race head-to-head against each other with the winner moving on and the loser eliminated.

“It’s kind of nice that we’ve got the dual moguls so it’s not four years to wait ‘til the next opportunity it’s only three days, so definitely looking forward to that,” Anthony said.“We’ll make a few adjustments because that sport is a little bit different, a bit more speed dependent and stuff, but yeah, we’ll shift the focus and learn.”