Jakara Anthony’s Winter Olympic gold medal was close to moguls perfection

You are Australia's sixth Winter Olympics gold medallist.

The mention of that accolade brought another smile to the already beaming face of Jakara Anthony moments after she created history at Zhangjiakou Genting Snow Park on Sunday night.

And she may well be pleased, because the manner of victory, in moguls terms, was a rout.

The 23-year-old led a stacked field – arguably the highest quality across the board in moguls history — from start to finish, nailing the best qualifying mark on Thursday before sending down the best score in each successive finals run to etch her name into Australian sporting folklore.

«I know that I'm capable of skiing like that,» she said.

«I was able to let myself do that tonight which was something really special and something I take a lot of pride in.»

In what is a judged sport, therefore hostage to the vagaries of the judge's opinion, the way she stamped her authority on the field was extraordinary.

It was particularly evident through the air.

Anthony's top cork 720 mute — a jump new for this season – was far superior to anything anyone else was attempting and, when combined with an immaculately formed backflip mute and clean, flowing turns through the mogul fields, was too much for anyone else to handle.

Anthony has been mixing it with the top athletes in the world all season, recording six podiums and one victory to sit third overall on the World Cup rankings.

Tonight, though, she was on another level.

Her relentless excellence was too much for reigning world and Olympic champion Perrine Laffont and current world cup leader Anri Kawamura, women many observers pegged as Anthony's biggest challengers but who faltered when it counted to finish outside the medals.

Look back at the action as it