The Ultimate Gamble: How Cooper Woods Chose Knowledge Over Bliss to Conquer Olympic Gold
The final run in many Winter Olympic sports presents athletes with a tantalising dilemma: embrace the advantage of knowing precisely what score is needed to win, or remain blissfully ignorant. This ‘reverse order’ final format, designed to maximise suspense, places immense pressure on the last competitors. They have the ultimate advantage of a target score, but the question remains: do they truly want to know?
Some athletes thrive on this information, using it to calibrate their risk-taking, fine-tuning their performance between a safe, solid run and a daring, potentially gold-medal-winning effort. Others prefer to stay in the dark, fearing that the weight of expectation might lead to performance paralysis. For them, a sense of freedom comes from focusing solely on executing their best run, regardless of the scores on the board.
Australian moguls skier Jakara Anthony, for instance, typically opts for the latter approach. She famously stated she was unaware of any specific scores during her final run in the women’s moguls, focusing instead on delivering a “great run” for the Olympic final.
From Disappointment to Determination: The Qualifying Rounds
For moguls skier Cooper Woods, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Livigno presented a shift in his usual strategy. While typically favouring an information-free approach, something in the air that day prompted him to deviate. “Today, for the first time, I actually listened to scores, and I watched a couple of runs up the top,” he admitted. “Usually in the past, it’s been a bit too much for me.”
The Olympic moguls competition features a field of 30 athletes, with two initial qualifying stages. The first allows the top 10 to advance directly to the finals the following day. The remaining 20 athletes must compete again, with the bottom 10 of that group being eliminated.
Woods initially placed 15th in his first qualifying run with a score of 73.67. While his family expressed disappointment with the judges’ assessment, Woods revealed he shared their sentiment and used it as powerful motivation.
The next day, after a pivotal session with his sports psychiatrist, Woods emerged “breathing fire.” He delivered a significantly improved performance, scoring 80.46 – the best score in the second qualifying round and the second-highest overall at that point. “I was a bit pissed off at the judges from the day before,” Woods explained. “I was pretty fired up. I was going out there with vengeance. I was like, ‘I’m leaving nothing on the table. You guys can’t score me low.’” He even recalled exchanging “explicit words” with his coach at the start gate to amplify his aggressive mindset.
Upping the Ante: The First Final
With confidence soaring, Woods knew he needed to elevate his game to compete with the medal contenders. Moguls skiing involves two jumps strategically placed between the bumpy terrain. In his qualifiers, Woods had executed a backflip and an off-axis 720 grab. However, he felt this combination wouldn’t be enough to challenge for a podium spot in the finals.
His plan was not only to increase his speed but also to add a significant degree of difficulty to his top jump. “Originally heading into the first final, we were going to go back to the qualification two run, because we scored so well,” Woods said. “Then we had a couple of opportunities in finals training, and I just wasn’t missing. I was like, ‘Let’s go all in. We’re at the Olympics. Let’s do it.’”
This bold decision meant transforming his backflip into a back double full, incorporating an extra 360-degree spin.
The first final saw 20 skiers competing for a chance at the podium, with only the top eight advancing. Woods, who had been a middle-of-the-pack performer on Wednesday, delivered a stunning 83.60 in this round. This remarkable score not only propelled him to the top of the standings for the round but also secured him the coveted last-to-go position in the decisive final run. “I didn’t actually realise that I was the top qualifier of that round,” Woods confessed. “It was only until I started putting my skis on that my coach told me. Then I kind of freaked out a little bit.”
The Ultimate Showdown: The Final Run
With his Olympic dreams hanging in the balance, Woods was completely locked in. The strategy was simple: execute the same high-calibre run that had earned him the top spot. “I kept reminding myself that it is a pleasure to drop last,” he stated. “I’ve never dropped last in my career, and I was dropping last behind some serious heavy hitters. I just need to relax up there, got a good coach, he kept me dialled in. I was pretty bloody nervous … [but] I knew what I had to do.”
As he waited for his turn, for the first time ever, and only because he felt exceptionally confident, Woods allowed his coach to brief him on the performances of the other seven finalists. He even witnessed some of their runs firsthand. “There’s a game plan,” he said. “We have so many awesome staff that are videoing and analysing other people … They were pretty straight up on what I needed to do and I needed to trust them and believe in that. I heard there was another 83 that got scored when I was up top and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ It’s a big mountain to get a score like that … the coach that I had up top, he was like, ‘Stay disciplined. Do the same thing.’ It worked out.”
The score to beat for Olympic gold was 83.71, posted by Canadian veteran Mikael Kingsbury, widely regarded as one of the greatest moguls skiers of all time. Kingsbury, competing in his final Olympics and aiming to reclaim the championship title after winning gold in 2018 and silver in 2022, had skied just before Woods. It appeared he might have done enough to secure the gold.
However, when Woods dropped in, he matched Kingsbury’s score of 83.71 exactly. In such tie situations, the judges’ turn score – their assessment of how smoothly and directly skiers navigate the moguls – becomes the deciding factor. Woods’ turn score was 48.4, narrowly edging out Kingsbury’s 47.7. This minuscule difference was enough for Woods to claim Olympic gold, upsetting one of the sport’s true legends in the most high-pressure scenario imaginable: the final run of an Olympic final.
“He kind of ticked all the boxes,” commented teammate Jackson Harvey. “He jumped really well, execution on the jumps was close to perfect and his skiing was very composed.” Woods’ triumph was attributed to his exceptional precision and meticulous attention to detail.
“Just the overall cleanliness of it,” said teammate Matt Graham, who hoisted Woods into the air upon the revelation of the final scores. “He connected the dots, it was seamless. Landed the top air really well and just skied out, didn’t make a mistake … whereas Mick made a little mistake in the middle, and then I think they were both pretty similar in time.”
The Winter Olympic Games are broadcast on the 9Network, 9Now, and Stan Sport.
