When you think of Australia, you think of sunshine, beaches and surfing, not winter sports.
The Australian athletes at Milan Cortina, however, may begin to change your mind.
With several days of competition still ahead, the nation has already had its most successful Winter Olympics to date. The 53-athlete roster — the second-largest Australian Winter Olympic contingent — has brought home five total medals, surpassing the previous best of four that was achieved at the 2022 Beijing Games.
Though Australia entered the 2026 Games with just 20 total Winter Olympic medals, the nation has been consistently represented for the last several decades. The first Aussie podium finish was in the 5000m short track speed skating relay at the 1994 Lillehammer Games, when the team of Steven Bradbury, Kieran Hansen, Andrew Murtha and Richard Nizielski took home the bronze.
Since that podium finish, Australia has won a medal at every Winter Olympic Games. Bradbury further cemented himself in the nation's history when he became the first Australian athlete to win gold, placing 1st in the short track 1000m at Salt Lake City in 2002.
It took 66 years for Australia to go from making its first Winter Olympic appearance to winning its first gold medal, but there has been no shortage of gold for the nation at Milan Cortina.
Three of the five Australian medals won at the 2026 Games have been gold. The nation has also taken home one silver and one bronze, all in freestyle skiing and snowboarding events.
The first medal, on Day 6, came in dramatic fashion. In his second Olympic appearance, 25-year-old Cooper Woods upset Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury — widely considered the greatest mogul skier of all time — in men's moguls.
Woods and Kingsbury tied the event with 83.71 points, but Woods' component score settled the tiebreaker in his favor.
"It hasn't sunk in yet," Woods said following the event. "Speechless, super emotional, very proud."
Woods kicked off a three-day streak of gold medal wins for Australian athletes. On Day 7, Josie Baff took home the first gold medal of her career with a 1st place finish in women's snowboard cross, and Jakara Anthony stood on top of the podium after winning the first-ever women's dual moguls event on Day 8. It was the second Olympic medal of her career, the first being a gold in moguls at the 2022 Beijing Games.
“We do so well in freestyle skiing," Anthony said. "We actually have great facilities in Australia. We're really well supported by our institutes of sport in the government. And we get great training opportunities, we have really high-quality coaching staff and teams around us and they give us the opportunities we need to make it possible to be so successful.”
Five-time Olympian Scotty James added to his résumé with a silver in the men's halfpipe on Day 7, while Matt Graham took home a bronze in men's dual moguls on Day 9. Graham's medal was the one to break the previous Australian Winter Olympic medal record, and it also bookended four straight days of podium finishes for the nation.
“It’s been a long time coming," Graham said of the country's success. "This is my fourth Olympic Games. In Sochi, we were a very young team and you could feel the potential at that point in time. The success we've had since then, as well, has really bred the belief in the younger generation in the likes of Jakara and Cooper. They showed that they're a force to be reckoned with. We've just had great leaders, we had a great team around us, not only in moguls, but across the board."
Australia entered the 2026 Games with just six golds and 20 total medals. With three golds and five total medals already won at Milan Cortina, there could still be more in store for the Aussies.
Tell you what: For a country considered a beach nation, we do pretty damn well.