Vancouver 2010 provided a brilliant conclusion to the Olympic Winter Institute’s 2006/7-2009/10 quadrennium, as Australia’s winter sports athletes collected a record medal haul.

For the first time, the nation could proudly claim three Winter Games medallists, as well as a string of other top ten placings.

In a remarkable outcome, Australia finished ahead of Italy, Japan, Finland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia on the medal tally – all countries with strong winter sports traditions – and was the fifth top nation in women’s results thanks to the gold medal winning efforts of Torah Bright and Lydia Lassila.

As well as those two medals, Dale Begg-Smith made a second successive podium appearance at a Winter Games, adding silver to the gold he had won in Torino in 2006.

Six other athletes finished in the top ten – Jacqui Cooper fifth in women’s aerials, Scott Kneller seventh in ski cross, Tatiana Borodulina seventh in 1000m short track speed skating, Holly Crawford eighth in snowboard halfpipe, Damon Hayler 10th in snowboard cross and Emma Lincoln-Smith 10th in skeleton.

It was, unquestionably, the best result by an Australian Olympic Winter Games team, not only in terms of the number of medals and top ten achievements, but also in the breadth of sports in which those results were achieved.

There were also some other wonderful signposts along the way.

The fact that Australia also had both the youngest male and youngest female competitor at the Games was a notable reflection of the depth of our winter sports programs.

The number of athletes in the team – 40 – equalled the record team size of Torino 2006.

And although Vancouver 2010 was obviously the focus for the year, our athletes also performed superbly once again in World Cup competition, with nine gold, four silver and one bronze the medal return for the year.

It was, all in all, another superb year for Australian winter sports.

A special thanks to the sponsors, stakeholders and partners who have supported the programs and the athletes throughout the four year journey.

AIS and ASC, AOC and Olympic Solidarity - Key stakeholders
NSWIS and VIS - SIS/SAS partners
Karbon and Mitsubishi - Commercial partners
Mt Buller, Thredbo, Perisher and NSW Sport & Rec - Resort partners
MountainStar Ogden Regional Health & Snowbasin - USA sponsor/resort partner
SSA, ISA, ABSA and AIR - Partner National Federations/National Sporting Organisations
XTM, Dartfish and Donjoy - Suppliers