A FORMER Ulladulla girl has become the first Australian to ever win a medal at the Winter Youth Olympics.
Sixteen-year-old Alex Fitch pulled off a fantastic performance in the final of the women’s snowboard slopestyle at Innsbruck last month to win bronze.
And she was unlucky not to return home with two medals after finishing fourth in the halfpipe.
Fitch now resides at Norah Head on the state’s Central Coast but was born and raised in Ulladulla.
She began snowboarding in 2004 when her parents hired her a snowboard on a family holiday.
She is also a keen surfer and competed in swimming and surf lifesaving at a state level before starting to exchange the Australian summer for a northern winter.
While Australia has medalled at the past five senior Winter Olympic Games, Fitch’s bronze was the nation’s first ever at a junior Winter Olympics.
The teenager described the feeling as “amazing”.
“I’m so proud,” she said. “It is so good to finally get on the podium and represent Australia.”
Her success at the Winter Youth Olympics followed some strong performances last year, finishing 9th in the slopestyle at the 2011 Junior World Championships in Italy and 12th in the halfpipe at the same event.
She also finished fourth in the slopestyling event at last year’s Revolution Tour at Mt Hood in the United States.
While Alex was born in Wagga, where her father was managing the Junee Swimming Pool at the time, she returned to Ulladulla soon afterwards with her mum, who was managing a local swimming school.
Alex is still remembered by many people as the baby who was always in the pool at the South Pacific Swimming School.
She attended Ulladulla Children’s Centre until she was nearly three years of age when the family moved away to take over management of the Wyong Council’s public swimming centres.
The family still calls Ulladulla home and have been flooded by calls from friends and family in the region wanting to congratulate Alex on her success.
Slopestyle is a new event where athletes ride through a course and perform tricks on rails and off jumps. The event is not timed but competitors are awarded points for style and difficulty of their run.
Alex pulled off a near-flawless first run – much to the delight of a horde of Australian fans scattered up the sides of the course.
“It was an ideal run,” she said. “I got my jumps down and it felt great.”
Things didn’t go to plan on her second run but the 69.75 she scored on the first run was enough to secure her a place on the podium and a place in Australia’s sporting history.
Alex lists her professional objectives as competing at the World Cup and “hopefully” the senior Winter Olympics, following in the footsteps of one of her heroes, Torah Bright, who took out a gold medal at the Vancouver Games in 2010.
And it might only be a couple of years before she joins her idols on the senior Olympic team.
Slopestyle is one of the new events on the program for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Next on agenda will be a trip to Spain for the world junior championships then to Austria for the world rookie fest.
She will continue to compete in the US open competition and has qualified for this year’s world cup.
“We will work towards getting Alex into the top 25 for the season which will quality her for the Winter Olympics,” father William said last week.
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