Jindabyne’s Josie Baff has added another accolade to her name, being declared the joint Snow Australia Female Athlete of the Year for Olympic Disciplines.

The 2026 Snow Australia Awards brought the Australian Olympic and Paralympic team together with the snowsports community gathering in Melbourne last week to celebrate a year of standout performances across all levels.

Among the night’s honours were Australia’s newly minted Olympic and Paralympic medallists, who joined fellow athletes recognised for their achievements on snow.

In a tightly contested category, two Olympic gold medallists could not be separated, Jakara Anthony and Josie Baff, and were named joint winners of the Female Athlete of the Year for Olympic Disciplines.

Josie Baff, Jindabyne’s first Olympic gold medallist, enjoyed a sensational winter with three World Cup podiums and finished the season ranked fourth overall.

“Every year the girls up on that stage are taking it to a new level, so it takes something incredible to win this award,” Baff said.

“To win Olympic gold medals is just insane; Indra’s season was so inspiring and of course Dani’s silver. So, I’m proud to be standing here with Jakara tonight as joint winners of this award.”

Baff described the moment on stage as a reflection of how high the bar has risen for Australian female athletes in the snow industry.

“It was crazy to be standing on that stage with such amazing female athletes,” she said.

“I think the bar for this award has risen so much over the years. I remember receiving it a couple of years ago and I hadn’t achieved an Olympic gold medal then.

“But to be standing up there again after winning three Olympic medals and having Indra Brown who is incredible, young and super talented skier and having success straight off the bat in her World Cup career is just crazy to me.

“I think we all deserve to win that award, but to share that with Jakara was super special.”

Baff said it is nice to have the snow community around strong women in the industry recognised.

“And even though we’re in different sports, we train a lot together, so it’s just nice to have had the opportunity to share that moment together,” Baff said.

Looking ahead to the Australian snow season, Baff is excited to return to her hometown and home resort for the opening weekend.

“After opening weekend I’m going to head back overseas for the rest of June and the start of July in Canada to have some training there with my strength and conditioning coach to do my physical preparation,” Baff said.

“Then I’ll be back to Thredbo for July and August to train and hopefully go down to Hotham again in August and go from there.”

After a period of downtime following her Olympic journey, Baff said she was ready to return to training and competitive momentum.

“With only a small amount of downtime since returning I believe I’ve had enough downtime and I’m ready to start moving again, and getting back to training, I feel pretty good and am ready to go,” Baff said.

Since her return to Australia, after the biggest success yet in her career, Baff offered some advice for younger athletes contemplating a career in snow sports.

“For potential athletes looking to get into the snow industry as a professional, my biggest advice would be to have fun and really enjoy what you’re doing,” Baff said.

“If you’re enjoying it, all of the hard work doesn’t seem so hard.”

The pathway is tough and holds a high dropout rate among young female teenagers.

“So just know that you can have more than one version of yourself, and you don’t have to limit yourself to one pathway so young,” Baff said.

“Explore new things and balance different sports and hobbies, don’t specialise in one thing too young and just enjoy it because everything helps each other in the end anyway.”

An inspiration now to young females across the world, Baff said during her career she looked up to other local snowsports athlete, Torah Bright. She loved how Torah was completely herself in all aspects of the sport.

“To go from looking up to somebody like that to becoming that for someone else is so crazy to me and hasn’t really sunk in yet that people could be looking up to me now,” Baff said.

“It is definitely cool to think about and is a bit of a full circle moment for me that someone could be looking up to me the way I did to Torah.”

The 2026 Snow Australia Awards showcased Australia’s growing prominence in women’s snowsports, with the night reflecting both the achievements of this year and the promise of the next season.