A Golden Welcome Home for Jakara Anthony

Dual gold-medallist Jakara Anthony was back where it all began up at Mt Buller celebrating her latest Olympic success with family, friends and fans.

As Jakara shared on her social media “How lucky am I to have a place like Mt Buller that always feels like home.”

Mt Buller was buzzing for the weekend with celebrations to welcome home Jakara including opportunities for fans to get autographs and treasured photos with Jakara and her medals. 

Jakara had a packed weekend joining her former Team Buller coach Tim Gale and his current group of mogul skiers for Saturday morning training on the bumps. There was time for a team photo in the village and a look at her superb gold medals before she joined the current crop of athletes on the mogul course and shared a few tips. Next stop was a lively Q&A with the Mt Buller Snow Squad kids who packed the Mt Buller cinema and peppered their hero with questions about her skiing journey from the magic forest at Mt Buller all the way to the top of the medal podium in Italy earlier this year. Jakara was generous with her time and answers talking about everything from her memories of getting started in Snow Squad and ski school at Mt Buller, how she stays focused on her goals, what she loves about skiing and her favourites runs at Mt Buller. In a special connection to Jakara’s Snow Squad days her instructor Cate Sullivan from the Ski & Snowboard School joined the session.  Speaking to one of the parents at the end of the session she said, “That was just so very special. My kids were hanging on every word and so inspired Jakara started out doing exactly what they do in Snow Squad each weekend. It was an incredible lesson for them in what’s possible and they could not be more fired up to get into their lesson tomorrow! They are running home to put up their signed Jakara posters on the bedroom wall.”

Mt Buller turned on the weather with a crisp wintry afternoon for the Winter night markets and Jakara welcome home celebrations. A packed village square turned out to cheer for their golden girl and celebrate her achievements. “We were all up in the middle of the night to watch her complete in the Olympics and this is so great to be able to cheer for her in person tonight,” said one onlooker.  Jakara was joined on stage by fellow Mt Buller Olympian Anton Grimus ahead of a stunning fireworks display in her honour.

Later Jakara was hosted at an intimate celebration in the National Alpine Museum of Australia where she presented her gold Livigno Olympic uniform to the collection.