'Wayne Bennett of snow': The gold medal whisperer behind Australia's best Winter Olympics ever

LIVIGNO: There are still eight days of competition to go, but already this Australian team can be crowned our best in Winter Olympics history.

Jakara Anthony on Saturday sealed gold medal redemption for a shattering career low, joining Josie Baff and Cooper Woods with gold at Milano Cortina 2026. An athlete wearing green and gold has stood on the top step of the podium three days in a row.

To put that in perspective, Australia won a total of just six gold medals in the 102-year history of the Winter Olympics before Thursday.

READ MORE: Jess Fox's advice that changed Anthony's fortunes

READ MORE: Anthony bounces back from crushing low to win gold

READ MORE: Legend's touching message to overnight star

"It's unbelievable. It's snowing, it's falling results, just, it feels like a blessing the last few days," the Australian team's chef de mission Alisa Camplin told Australian media, including Wide World of Sports, in the hours after Anthony's gold in Livigno.

"It's everything we could have dreamed of. We had a great team, highly credentialed, and we're only halfway through, and we've had our most historic record for a team, so I'm pretty overwhelmed if I'm honest."

Sometimes when it rains, it pours, but the weather hasn't changed by accident.

The Australian Olympic Committee and the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia have methodically built up a programme that is now world-leading in several sports, with coaches and support staff the envy of proud winter sport nations, despite our relative lack of pedigree.

Australia's athletes are revered in aerials and just about all of the freeski and snowboard disciplines, but our gold standard at the moment is the moguls team.

Australia now boasts three gold medals from five moguls events (at the time of writing) at the last two Olympic Games. Anthony and Woods are the toast of Livigno, but they're standing on the shoulders of giants, with Dale Begg-Smith winning Australia's first moguls gold medal at Turin 2006 and backing it up with a silver at Vancouver 2010, while 2026 flag bearer Matt Graham added a silver to the team's growing collection at PyeongChang 2018.

Watch the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 live and free on Channel 9 and 9Now. Plus, every event live & on demand, every medal in 4K, and exclusive international coverage on Stan Sport.

There are many reasons for Australia's moguls prowess, but one that shouldn't be discounted is the head coach, who has become a bit of a gold medal whisperer.

Pete McNiel first saw Anthony skiing when she was 12 and knew she had something special.

"She was very quiet, shy, loved skiing, not necessarily just moguls skiing, all skiing and the one thing I noticed before I started coaching her, we were in Park City (a ski resort in Utah, United States), skiing around and just the way she stood on her skis and moved, I was like 'that girl', I was only a junior coach too, but I thought 'there's something about the way she skis that I think she could be great', not really knowing, like I'm a naive young coach.

"But just balance, solid, some fundamental thing that makes sense in your mind, and now we're here."

McNiel has guided Anthony's career full-time since she was 15, and he identified and brought through Woods when he was about the same age.

There's a case to be made that McNiel is the person most responsible for Australia's last three moguls gold medals and a key reason why talented athletes from other nations are starting to choose Australia as a place they want to train. Men's moguls finalist Jackson Harvey is one example of an athlete who chose to represent Australia over another powerful skiing nation, having grown up in Colorado, United States.

Speaking to Australian media, including Wide World of Sports, after Anthony won her second career Olympic gold, McNiel presented as a man who genuinely cares about the athletes under his guidance. He was almost in tears as he described the dark few days that followed Anthony's uncharacteristic mistake in the single moguls final.

"I'm so proud of the programme and all the people involved, the staff, the other coaches," he said.

"I think it's a real testament to the culture of the sport and the people in the team. And also the legacy of the people who coached before, and the programmes and the support from the government and the AOC."

While McNiel was keen to deflect praise towards Anthony, Woods and his support staff, when asked by Wide World of Sports how Australia had become a world leader in moguls, Camplin immediately name-checked the bearded head coach.

"Pete McNiel, whose the head coach of the mogul programme, he's a three-time gold medal coach now in winter sport, that's unprecedented," Camplin said.

"He and the whole coaching staff, physios, strength and conditioning, coaches' coach, the way they operate is so elite, their highest value is good character, good ethics, work hard. They've just built a culture of strength and support around one another with Jakara and Matt Graham as role models. They walk the talk every day, and with ongoing funding and generational passing of knowledge and looking out for each other, that's how they've been able to continually deliver these great results."

It was put to Camplin that McNiel was "the Wayne Bennett of snow", given his growing influence on the moguls programme, having taken over as head coach four years ago. He now also oversees the Institute of Sport programmes throughout Australia.

"Well, I'm sure he'll be privileged to hear that," she said. "He's a humble guy, but you know what, he leads with his heart. He's a really passionate and committed coach, and that's something ... I've talked about the great humans in this team, but it's not just about the athletes, who are remarkable role models, but it's the coaches, the investment and the cohesiveness and collaboration of all the staff that work in these bubbles, it's pretty special."

The gold rush has come at the perfect time.

Australians love winners, and when it comes to Olympic sports, both summer and winter, the only way to win gold medals is to pour government money into the sports, few of which have professional competitions capable of sustaining the athletes or high-performance programmes that mould them.

The Summer Games have always been king in Australia, and with Brisbane 2032 on the horizon, there's a risk that the tunnel vision from the public will further narrow.

Gold medals in Italy might be enough to prevent the dollars that have supported the stars of Milano Cortina from disappearing in the next six years.

"With a lot of focus on summer, I really hope that winter won't be forgotten," Camplin said.

"I feel that we've earned our stripes. We've methodically and systematically been laying the foundations for these kinds of performances in multiple sports. I feel like the athletes are the role models that Australia want to see, their story of courage and balancing risk and reward and making sound decisions entitles them to be as well funded as our summer athletes, so yeah, I do hope that there'll be an uplift of funding for winter that's on par with what our summer athletes will hopefully receive going into Brisbane 2032.

" ... I'm not going to shy away from saying that more money makes a big difference. We've seen this over the last eight years, and hopefully for the next eight years, this team will be rewarded for their work and their performances."