About
Cooper Woods-Topalovic, an Australian freestyle skier born in Merimbula (OWIA's own official page lists Cooma), New South Wales, and raised in Pambula Beach; son of former national aerial skier Katrina Woods, with uncle Peter Topalovic a longtime Perisher/Australian moguls team coach. Joined the Perisher Winter Sports Club at 12 and won an NSWIS scholarship in 2016. Made history in December 2018 as the first Australian male to win a US Selection event (Winter Park). Competed at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, finishing 6th in moguls - the top Australian male result that Games. Earned his maiden World Cup podium (silver) at Waterville Valley in January 2024. Mentored by former Wallabies captain John Eales since 2022. At the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, delivered an unexpected gold-medal run in moguls: recovered from a 15th-place opening qualifier through a second qualification round, topped Final 1, then produced an 83.71-point run as the last skier in the medal round - tying Mikael Kingsbury's score and winning gold on the turns-component tiebreak (48.4 to 47.7), his first-ever World Cup victory of any kind. Also competed in the inaugural Olympic dual moguls event, finishing 13th.
2026 Olympics: gold (moguls, 83.71 pts, tiebreak win over Kingsbury), 13th (dual moguls). Prior to the Games he had only 1 career World Cup podium (silver, Waterville Valley, Jan 2024) and zero wins - his Olympic gold was his first-ever World Cup-level victory. OWIA's own page (Place of Birth: Cooma) and Wikipedia (born in Merimbula) give slightly different birthplaces - both small NSW South Coast towns near his Pambula Beach home; not resolved further, noted for transparency.