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Woods claims shock gold medal through tiebreaker
SEN • February 13th, 2026 2:43 am
Australia has won its first Olympic medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics with Cooper Woods delivering an upset to win gold in the men’s moguls.
The New South Welshman delivered one of the best runs of his career to beat the likes of Canadian great Mikael Kingsbury and Japanese World Champion Ikuma Horishima in the Super Final to win Australia’s seventh gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
After missing out on the top 10 cut to make the first final in the initial qualifying round, the Aussie would need to go into the second and final round of qualifying to have any chance of claiming a medal.
And Woods made the most of it, having secured his spot to the first final with a score of 80.46, the highest total in that run.
And in the finals, the boy from Cooma continued to deliver a performance of a lifetime.
The 25-year-old topped the first finals run with a score of 83.6, which meant he would go last in the Super Final.
With all the competitors having gone before him, Woods knew he needed to beat Kingsbury, who had scored an 83.71.
Instead, the Australian tied Kingsbury’s score, with judges required to use the tiebreaker to split the two.
And with Woods having a better turns score (48.4) than Kingsbury’s (47.7), he would be crowned Olympic Champion and celebrated accordingly.
He becomes the second Australian man to have won gold in the moguls, joining Dale Begg-Smith from the 2006 Winter Olympics, which was also in Italy.
Two other Australians did manage to make the Super Final alongside Woods.
Pyeongchang silver medallist and flagbearer for the Opening Ceremony, Matt Graham, finished fifth.
While 23-year-old Jackson Harvey claimed eighth in the Super Final.
