The fourth instalment of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame’s exclusive series, The Untold Story, features 2013 Tier 1 Scholarship Holder, Britteny Cox.
Britt was born in Wodonga, Victoria, in 1994. She grew up skiing alpine and mogul events on the slopes of Falls Creek but couldn’t resist the excitement of technical skiing and jumping, so she committed to moguls.
At Vancouver 2010, 15-year-old Britt made history as the youngest Australian to compete at a Winter Olympic Games, and competed at four Winter Olympic Games throughout her sporting career. During the 2016/2017 season, Britt won 7 out of 11 mogul events on the World Cup to win the prestigious Crystal Globe and won gold at the World Championships in Spain. These results earned her the title of Snowsports Australia Athlete of the Year. In 2022, Britt announced her retirement from competitive mogul skiing.
This is Britt’s Untold Story…
Q. How are things going since announcing your retirement as an elite athlete?
A. I can’t believe it’s now been over a year since I announced my retirement from competitive mogul skiing. I seem to have fit a lot in over that time including many new challenges. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past year working in various areas of sport broadcasting including the newsroom, digital during the Commonwealth Games, calling live mogul and aerial skiing World Cup competitions, and working with the production team on the Big Bash league and test cricket. I have also stayed closely involved in Australia’s high performance sporting system as a board member of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia and member of the HP2032+ Strategy Leadership Group. On a more personal side, I competed in my first triathlon and completed a half marathon and have enjoyed spending more time on home soil with family and friends.
Q. What drew you to the sport of mogul skiing?
A. My mogul skiing journey began chasing my older brother, Hamish, around the mountain at Falls Creek. I always wanted to be doing what him and his mates were doing. I competed in all skiing disciplines at interschool competitions, but I just loved the excitement and variety that mogul skiing offered. The sense of satisfaction I gained from putting together the package of speed, clean turns and big jumps had me hooked from my first ever competition.
Q. Were you ever competitive in other sports as a young athlete?
A. I had a very active childhood, both in the sense of organised sport and mucking around in the backyard with my older brother. Afternoons and weekends in the summer usually involved swim club/carnivals, tennis, dancing, and circus trampolining (yep :)). If I wasn’t doing those things, my brother and I would make obstacle courses in the backyard.
Q. What was a significant obstacle you had to overcome in your sporting career?
A. I don’t think anyone’s sporting journey is linear, no matter what it may look like from the outside. My biggest challenge was learning how to separate my sense of self-worth from my results and performance. I cared deeply about my sporting career and that never changed, but once I learnt to view this more objectively and to separate Britt the athlete from Britt the person, my training and recovery became much more efficient and effective. It was this lesson that helped me navigate my most significant injury in 2019 when I had a crash in competition that resulted in a broken clavicle and 6 ribs (thankfully I was unconscious from impact).
Q. Is there anything you miss about being an elite athlete?
A. There is a lot I miss about being an athlete- most of all would be the feeling of standing in the start gate at a major competition. I loved the rush of adrenaline and excitement I would feel right before I was about to push out of the gate knowing that I had the opportunity to apply my training and compete for my country in the sport I loved so much. I also miss my team a lot. Throughout my career I spent more time with them than my actual family and we shared many amazing moments together. However, I also feel very content with my decision to move on to the next chapter of life and I’m choosing to embrace new goals, challenges, and adventures.
Q. What do you consider your greatest achievement when looking back on your sporting career?
A. Throughout my career I didn’t spend a lot of time reflecting on what I had achieved, perhaps because I was always looking toward the next goal. It wasn’t until I made the decision to hang up the competition boots that I looked back and felt a true sense of pride for my accomplishments in the sport. Winning the World Championships in 2017 is my most memorable result, but looking back, I probably consider my ability to lead the World Cup tour that whole season my greatest achievement.
Q. What are your current goals and ambitions now that you’ve retired from elite sport?
A. One thing I’ve learnt since retiring from mogul skiing is that goals in life outside sport are a lot less black and white, however there are still many lessons I have learnt from sport that I can apply to my current goals and aspirations. My focus has now shifted to helping communicate the stories of Australian athletes through broadcast media as well as supporting Australia’s high performance sporting system as I strongly believe that sport is an important part of Australian culture and has many positive lessons and outcomes for our society more broadly.
