THE father of Mount Beauty Winter Olympic sensation Britteny Cox has arrived back in Australia glowing in his praise of the pint-sized mogul star.
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Graeme Cox, who spent two weeks in Vancouver with his wife Karen and son Hamish, said the family was enormously proud of Britteny’s efforts in which the 15-year-old came 23rd in the women’s moguls.
Australia’s youngest winter Olympian since Aileen Nash in 1960, Cox finished with 19.87 points at Cypress Mountain, not enough to progress through to the final.
But Graeme Cox said his daughter was extremely satisfied with her performance, considering she set a new personal best in the process.
“She missed the final but that wasn’t really an issue for her or her coaches,” he said yesterday.
“To be selected for the Olympics at 15 years of age is an achievement in itself — she was targeting the 2014 games, so to even make the team was better than expected.
“She was really happy with how she competed — she finished 23rd, which was just outside the top 20, so she wasn’t far off (making the final).
“The fact she achieved a personal best at an international competition speaks for itself.
“Britteny’s coaches were very impressed with her result and how she competed — they said it looked very promising for the future.
“It’s definitely something that she can build on.”
Graeme Cox said outside of competing against the world’s best, the year 10 Scots School Albury student had also enamoured herself to her fellow competitors and coaches.
“A lot of the other international coaches couldn’t believe how young she was and ... a lot of her fellow athletes really took a liking to her,” he said.
“She’s made some life-long friends over there ... she’s had such a great time.”
Graeme Cox said Britteny would arrive back in Australia on Wednesday morning before probably returning to school on Monday.
