EXCLUSIVE: Gold medal superstar Jakara Anthony living on a knife's edge between 'fear' and all-time greatness

As Jakara Anthony, the reigning Olympic gold medallist in moguls, looks to defend her Winter Games crown, her focus is less on glory and more of the pursuit of perfection and "chasing the impossible."

Moguls stands alone as the Winter Olympic sport that demands that athletes master two elements: high-speed skiing on a highly technical course and complex aerial jumps.

Anthony's gold-medal winning run in Beijing clocked in at a blisteringly fast 27.63 seconds and she'll be looking to improve on that in Milano-Cortina.

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"I'm definitely a perfectionist, definitely chasing that impossible," she said exclusively to Wide World of Sports.

"But I think that's part of the reason why I've been able to be so successful, is that I always want more out of myself.

"And my coach Pete is pretty similar. We're really striving for mastery in the sport to get as good as we can with all the different skills.

"It keeps me really motivated because we've got goals outside the actual competition.

"If we're going out there and chasing mastery and achieving that, then the results just flow as a result."

Training for such a unique sport requires a unique set-up. Australia's water ramp in Brisbane is home to multiple winter athletes that practice aerial manoeuvres to master their craft in the water before hitting the slopes.

"It's pretty full-on, the training [for moguls], because there's so many different components to the sport," Anthony explained.

"[We're] the only winter sport that really you have to be able to perform the skiing side of things as well as the jumping side, mostly it just depends on one or the other. So, there's a lot of time spent on that.

"Obviously, [we're] on snow when we can be for the turns and [for] jumps, we have a water ramp facility in Brisbane at the Geoff Henke Training Centre, so it's plastic ramps into a pool so we can train our jumps off snow.

"Along with that, we're in the gym as much as we can be, getting as strong and fit as possible, because there's some pretty solid forces going through your body for that sport."

Anthony's first competition back after injury that cut her 2024-25 season short saw her take her first World Cup gold in her Olympic season.

She added to her tally of career World Cup victories and also dusted off her first crash of the season.

"Yeah, it [was] a big week with quite a few firsts. My first World Cup back after the injury. Had my first crash after the injury," she laughed.

"All the emotions. It was a tough course to be competing on, so I was probably the most nervous I've ever been for a competition. It was good to get going and tick off that box and start to feel a bit normal, start again.

"I was pretty nerve-filled and to get that outcome of taking home gold at the event and Matt [Graham] getting it in the men's - double gold for Australia, that was just such a special way to put that all up."

Although Australia is 16,500km from Livigno, Anthony knows that she'll feel the fan support from the small Italian alpine town, saying Aussies are widely fanatical about the small number of winter athletes representing the country far from home soil.

"It's so special to have all that support from back in Australia. We're a sports fan nation, so I feel like there's a lot of people getting behind us," she explained.

"Winter sports is a bit of minority back there, but the support is so huge and maybe even more because it's such a small community, but it's exciting to see people from all around Australia getting behind us."

As winter sports become more popular, so do the extreme ventures attempted by athletes.

Anthony acknowledges that skiing has taken a shift towards expecting a "fear" factor in their jumps. She was the first female skier to land the highly-difficult cork 720 mute in Olympic competition.

She believes athletes will have to learn to live with ongoing consternation of the "genuine risks."

"People think I have no fear. I definitely think I have fear," she said.

"The fear is a thing that's always going to be there. We do an extreme sport and there's genuine risks if things go wrong.

"We saw that a fair bit [in competitions], there was some carnage on the course.

"But we work on the mental side of things to learn tools to be able to manage that fear because it's not going anywhere, so we've kind of got to learn to work with it.

"I've got a lot of people helping work on that [the mental side of the sport] with me and it's stuff that we work on off the snow and when we're at training and competition.

"It's pretty all-encompassing, but we're in the top one per cent of the sport, so that can make the difference."

Another face making a huge difference in Anthony's support system is her coach, Peter McNeil, who has been by the 27-year-old's side since she was 12 years old.

The nearly 15-year long relationship spans an Olympic gold medal, the most World Cup victories ever by a mogul skier of any nation in a single year and a season-ending injury to Anthony's collarbone.

"It's pretty crazy, crazy that we've been working with Pete for so long. From developing athlete and developing coach right through to Olympic gold medallist athlete [and] Olympic gold medallist coach, it's a pretty unique dynamic and that makes it super special."

"He's part of my family, and I honestly wouldn't be where I am today seeing my highest of lows and my lowest of lows, and trying to fly me through it all.

"That's really enabled us to have a lot of trust in each other, and that's what makes it such a good relationship.

"We are a bit like an old married couple sometimes though," she quipped.

Skier Brittney Cox was Anthony's role model growing up. Now Anthony is shaping a new generation of winter athletes.

Her name has been immortalised at her home slopes of Mt Buller, by renaming the mogul run at the top of the mountain the 'Jakara Anthony Mogul Course'.

"Yeah, it's definitely a factor. It's just what it is that I'm actually super privileged to be in that position," Anthony admitted when asked by WWOS about the Olympic pressure.

"Only one athlete in the field gets to go in as [Olympic] reigning champion. And I'm super fortunate that this time that's me, so looking forward to that.

"It does come with it a few extra pressures or whatever, if you feel it like that, you definitely got a target on your back.

"[But I'm] super privileged to be in this position," she reiterated.

"It's crazy being in this position, like I looked up to those athletes competing at the Olympics so much.

"Britt Cox, particularly, I was able to learn a lot from competing alongside her and even just catching up with her still post-athletic career.

"But she was such a phenomenal athlete and human and the way she carried herself was just incredible. And she really was great at leading by example.

"And I hope that I've been able to take some of that and just pass that on to the next generation too."

After a COVID Olympics in Beijing with no spectators or families allowed in the stands, Anthony will have a full platform of her closest supporters cheering her name on the Livigno slopes.

After her gold-medal winning run, Anthony was forced to celebrate over FaceTime with her parents.

This time they will be front and centre in Italy to see their daughter aim to defend her title and hopefully clinch a second Olympic gold medal.

"My family and some friends and staff, quite a big crew actually are heading over to watch in person at Milano-Cortina, which is really exciting," she said.

"[We had a] COVID Games at the last Olympics that meant no one could go and now all of a sudden, everyone's going to go. I'm super excited for them to get to see it in person."