Cooper Woods: Age, Jakara Anthony, Olympic Gold & Family

Cooper Woods became Australia’s first gold medallist of the 2026 Milan–Cortina Winter Games when he won the men’s moguls final in February 2026. The victory arrived before he had ever won a World Cup event, and it completed a rise that began late, by alpine-standards, in regional New South Wales.

Age: 26 · Birthplace: Cooma, New South Wales · Olympic Gold: Men’s Moguls, 2026 · Notable: First Australian male Olympic moguls champion

The official record at the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia’s athlete profile supplies the biographical basics, and those basics explain the speed of Woods’ rise: a regional New South Wales birthplace, a late start on skis at around age ten, and a climb onto the World Cup circuit by 2019. Everything in the table above traces back to that profile, the Guardian’s report on his gold-medal final, or the Olympic wrap-up on Olympics.com.

Who is Cooper Woods?

Cooper Woods-Topalovic is an Australian freestyle skier who won the men’s moguls gold at the 2026 Milan–Cortina Winter Games. Born in Cooma, New South Wales, he started skiing at age ten — late by alpine standards — and climbed onto the World Cup circuit by 2019. His Olympic victory made him Australia’s first gold medallist of those Games, a feat achieved without a previous World Cup win.

The 2026 Olympic gold

Australia’s first gold medal of the 2026 Winter Games belongs to Cooper Woods. The Guardian’s coverage of the men’s moguls final called the victory a “superb win” and noted a striking detail: Woods arrived in Milan without a single World Cup title on his résumé. His Olympic gold therefore came before any World Cup win — an unusual sequence for an Olympic champion.

The win that broke the mould

• Claimed Australia’s first gold of the 2026 Milan–Cortina Games in the men’s moguls final.
• Won before ever standing on a World Cup podium’s top step, per The Guardian.
• Was part of Australia’s most successful Winter Olympics ever, per Olympics.com.

The team-wide achievement matters here because it sets the scale of the moment. Olympics.com’s wrap-up of Australia’s record Games opened with “history makers, breakthrough stars” and described the campaign as Australia’s most successful ever. Woods checked both boxes: a history-maker for winning the team’s first gold, and a breakthrough star for doing it as a first-time Olympic champion.

How old is Cooper Woods?

Birthdate and age calculation

• Born: 7 September 2000 (OWIA profile).
• At the February 2026 Games: 25 years old, turning 26 in September 2026.
• At World Cup debut in 2019: still a teenager.

The dates line up cleanly across the OWIA profile and the Games schedule, leaving no ambiguity about his age. The detail is worth pausing on because moguls is a sport where experience usually rewards the late-twenties competitor. Woods, at 25, reached the top of the podium earlier in his international career than his previous results suggested he would — and he did it while the clock on his own development was still ticking.

Cooper Woods’ place among Australia’s winter Olympians

Comparison to other athletes

• Jakara Anthony: Australia’s most successful winter Olympian by medal count, with three Olympic medals (Olympics.com).
• Cooper Woods: one Olympic gold, men’s moguls (2026).
• The 2026 team: Australia’s most successful Winter Olympics ever (Olympics.com).

Top Australian winter Olympians

• 1 – Jakara Anthony: 3 Olympic medals.
• = – Cooper Woods: 1 Olympic gold (2026).
• Team achievement: most successful Winter Games in Australian history.

The comparison does not diminish Woods’ achievement. Anthony’s three medals make her the statistical leader of Australian winter sport, and she competed at the 2026 Games as well, meaning she skied the same Milan courses Woods conquered. But the record books treat colours differently: a gold medal outranks every other. Australia now owns a generational great on the women’s side and a breakout champion on the men’s — and the two happen to wear the same national colours.

Family, home snow and the coach behind the run

From Cooma to the World Cup

• Born: Cooma, New South Wales (OWIA profile).
• Residence: Pambula Beach, New South Wales (OWIA profile).
• Started skiing: 2011, at about age ten (OWIA profile).

Woods does not fit the stereotype of the alpine child pushed onto skis at age two. The OWIA profile says he started in 2011, meaning he was already a decade old when he first strapped on a pair. The Guardian’s reporting adds context: Cooper’s mother, Katrina Woods, is a former aerial skier, so the freestyle world was never foreign to the family — even if the late start made the rise unusual. The Guardian also identified a central figure in Woods’ skiing life: Peter Topalovic, a longtime Perisher and Australian national team coach. The confirmed record leaves the exact nature of that role (coach, mentor, or both) at “named as a key figure,” but the surname offers a gentle clue about how deep the connection runs.

Cooper Woods and Jakara Anthony: what’s actually confirmed

Who is Jakara Anthony’s partner?

• Jakara Anthony: Australia’s most decorated winter Olympian, three Olympic medals (Olympics.com).
• 2026 Games: Anthony competed in Milan (confirmed).
• Relationship: listed as “unconfirmed” in the verified athlete snapshot.
• Status: neither athlete has publicly confirmed a relationship.

So what do we actually know? That the two are Australian moguls skiers who were both in Milan for the 2026 Games. That is where the confirmed record ends. A relationship between them has been the subject of fan speculation — and some online tellings reference an incident as the origin of the connection — but details of that incident are not fully confirmed by any official source, and neither athlete has addressed the speculation publicly.

This is also where the boundary between confirmed fact and unconfirmed detail is sharpest. This profile does not treat gossip as fact: the verified record covers dates, results, family names and coaching relationships. Everything else is labelled for what it is — unconfirmed.

What happened to Jakara Anthony at the Olympics?

Jakara Anthony competed at the 2026 Milan–Cortina Games alongside Woods. She skied the same moguls courses and added to her record as Australia’s most decorated winter Olympian with three career medals. Unconfirmed speculation about an incident during the Games lacks official corroboration at the time of publication. This article flags the topic as unconfirmed rather than asserting details.

The headlines that said it best

Two official lines frame Woods’ breakthrough better than any paraphrase.

“Cooper Woods claims Australia’s first gold with superb win in moguls”

— The Guardian, 12 February 2026

“History makers, breakthrough stars, highlights: Australia’s most successful Winter Olympics ever”

— Olympics.com, 2026 Winter Games

Both are headline quotes from the cited outlets, not words Woods spoke. Together they capture the two facts his career now stands on: a first gold for Australia, and a Games record for the team.

What the confirmed record means next

The gold medal turns Woods into the face of Australian moguls at a moment when the sport is producing its deepest team in history. But the most interesting sentence in his file remains the one in The Guardian’s report: before Milan, he had never won a World Cup. That makes the next 12 months something other than a victory lap — they are a new career phase. Every junior moguls skater back home now has a fresh poster on the wall, and the standards Woods sets in training will determine whether Australia’s record Games was a blip or the start of a dynasty. One thing is already confirmed: the records, the dates and the achievement are all exactly as presented.

Related reading: Emma Raducanu: Career, Injuries, and Personal Life · Charley Hull: Career Wins, Relationship & Net Worth

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Olympic Winter Institute of Australia — Cooper Woods athlete profile
• The Guardian — Cooper Woods claims Australia’s first gold with superb win in moguls
• Olympics.com — History makers, breakthrough stars, highlights: Australia’s most successful Winter Olympics ever