How Rosie Fordham leads the way in a race 'everybody comes out for'

Even at the other end of a phone, Rosie Fordham gives the impression of someone containing an enormous amount of energy.

The 24-year-old, from New South Wales, has just finished waxing her skis when she speaks to ABC Sport, preparing the tools of her trade as Australia's leading cross-country skier.

Even that relatively mundane activity is described with an effusiveness that positively fizzes down the line.

We probably shouldn't be surprised.

Cross-country skiing is the ultimate full-body workout, maximising muscles in both upper and lower body and exacting a relentless aerobic demand on anyone who takes part.

It is, without question, a discipline that is among the most gruelling of all physical endeavours the human body can partake in.

Add in generally inhospitable, sub-zero temperatures and exposed, high-altitude conditions and you've got yourself a challenge that is not for the faint of heart.

Anyone who competes at any level in this sport is supremely fit in a way that few can genuinely comprehend — and intensely self-motivated to succeed.

Fordham is the best cross-country skier Australia has ever produced.

Last year she became the first Australian to ever win a medal in an international cross-country skiing event, claiming silver in the 10-kilometre interval skating race at the FIS U23 World Ski Championships.

She has since claimed a number of top-20 finishes in the intensely competitive FIS World Cup, and achieved Australia's highest-ever finish at a Winter Olympics by finishing 29th in the 50km mass start event in Val di Fiemme.

"It's awesome to be a part of it," Fordham tells ABC Sport from the Australian ski fields. 

"I think in previous years, or even when I started skiing … you just never really heard about cross-country skiing when I was a junior.

"We were definitely kind of left out of a lot of the coverage.

"But now, being able to back it up with good results so people can see that we are legitimate contenders in such gruelling and very traditional winter sports has been pretty cool."

Australia's 2026 Winter Olympics was its most successful of all time, with Aussie athletes winning six medals in Milano-Cortina; three golds, two silvers and a bronze across freestyle skiing and snowboarding disciplines.

Olympic medallists Jakara Anthony, Cooper Woods, Josie Baff, Scotty James, Dani Scott and Matt Graham all earned their time in the limelight after such brilliant success in Livigno's alpine paradise.

And in the face of such sensational return, it might be easy to sniff at top-30 finishes elsewhere as not being deserving of praise.

But that is far from a fair stance to take.

Snow Australia president Daniel Bosco said he was "really proud" of what the Australians had achieved in both alpine and Nordic skiing events.

"The success we've had with the cross-country teams is outstanding; unheard of," he told ABC Sport in Livigno during those Games.

"It's funny, I mean, the Australian public and most people who aren't connected to the sport probably look at a 29th place finish and think, 'Oh well, we're not that competitive.'

"But to me that is just such an awesome outcome.

"Let's go back 20 years and look at maybe freestyle and some of the other park and pipe disciplines that were just starting to develop. We probably felt we weren't that competitive back then in those sports either.

"But we dreamt big and we achieved. Who knows what's possible for these cross-country and alpine teams."

That admiration is shared by the higher-profile medal winners as well.

"You talk to people who are winning World Cups and things in aerials and moguls and they're like, 'Oh, you guys do this crazy thing', 'you're so fit' and 'it's awesome what you do,'" Fordham said.

"So, I guess, just hearing that and seeing that people seem to care a little bit more about endurance sports in general and winter sports has been pretty cool."

Kangaroo Hoppet

One of the most visible representations of the popularity of endurance sports on the Australian winter sport scene is the enduring appeal of the Kangaroo Hoppet.

The race's roots are in the establishment of the Birkenbeiner Nordic Ski Club in 1977 in Mount Beauty, Victoria, which began a 21km long-distance race around Falls Creek into the Bogong High Plains wilderness area.

In 1989, the club bid to join the Worldloppet global series of ski marathons by hosting a 42km version of the event, with the newly christened Kangaroo Hoppet becoming the first Southern Hemisphere event in the series in 1991.

Taking place annually on the third Saturday in August, the Kangaroo Hoppet showcases a huge range of abilities and, despite challenging snowfall conditions, this year's 32nd edition was completed with 730 skiers across three events.

In the men's race, Olympians Lars Young Vik and Seve De Campo tore off around the course, with Young Vik claiming victory for the first time, while Bentley Walker-Broose finished third.

Fordham claimed victory in the women's race for the second year in a row, ahead of Milano-Cortina Olympian Maddie Hooker and rising biathlon competitor Isabella Moon.

Just by competing through, Fordham was reminded how much support there was for the sport in Australia.

"It's a cool race," Fordham said of the Hoppet. 

"The first time I did it was last year and I honestly didn't know that there was that many people who cared about cross-country skiing in Australia.

"Everybody comes out for the Hoppet. I've never seen that many people on skis in one place and it's pretty cool to get everybody on the course.

"Normally you do a two-lap course so you'll be passing and lapping people and they would know your name and cheer for you by name. This year we did a shortened course so we did four laps of a smaller course and these people are out there racing, they're skiing pretty hard and working really, really hard, and they are still cheering for the top-tier athletes, they know all our names.

"I think that it's easy to forget that there's a whole community back home that are actually watching the races and not just forgetting that we exist.

"When we're overseas, you don't usually hear from them or remember that people are really interested. 

"It's cool to remember, I guess, that people do care back home and they are like quite invested in how we do.

"It's pretty awesome to just be a part of the community."

Interschools driving the next generation

Australia has long punched above its weight from a participation point of view in winter sport, even if that may come as a surprise to those who rarely venture to the alpine regions.

Snow Australia notes that 109 Australian Winter Olympians have passed through the interschools program, which now sees more than 7,000 high school students compete annually across a huge range of disciplines.

"It is so amazing to see that 31 members of the Milano Cortina Australian team have come from the interschools pathway," said Wendy Olsen, Snow Australia's national event coordinator.

"It inspires the new generation of snow-sport athletes, to see Olympians grow so far from the same position they are standing in today.

"It goes to show just how important these first competition experiences truly are."

Fordham is one of the Winter Olympians who found the sport through that experience. It turned the promising long-distance runner into one of the world's best long-distance skiers.

"I was downhill skiing as a kid and then found cross-country skiing through interschools at year eight," Fordham said. 

"I like that it combines the endurance from running, but also the being in the mountains and skiing from downhill skiing. So it's kind of a perfect combo."

This year, Fordham was helping coach her former school and got another taste of how opportunity can strike for some young skiers.

"It's pretty awesome," Fordham says of the interschools. 

"I think, without it, we definitely wouldn't have the interest in snow sports that we do in Australia.

"It's just an excuse to try everything. I was coaching my old school last week and one of the kids that does alpine skiing, he won the cross-country race in year six. 

"I was like, 'Did you even know that you could win a cross-country race?' and he says, 'Oh, yeah, I guess I won.' That's just crazy. 

"We find a lot of talent just by having them enter the race because they think, 'That's a bit of fun, I'll try it out.' 

"It is a way to find people who love the sport and also people who are really good at it, just because they do it for fun with their friends, which I think is pretty amazing to have something like that."

Long-term goals for Utah

School is out for Fordham now though, the 2026/27 season representing the first year she will be a full-time athlete after she graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

It means heading to Lillehammer for a stint training with the Great Britain squad ahead of a full tilt at the World Cup season and World Championships in Falun, Sweden.

"It's quite exciting to be based in Europe for a bit … to be done with uni and not having to go back and forth between the US and Europe, racing and taking exams and all sorts, while racing for college as well. 

"It'll be nice to focus fully on the World Cup and the World Championships."

Of course, the longer-term goals remain focused on Olympic Games, with Utah in 2034 a particularly intriguing one.

"In the women's side of the sport, the best are the ones that sort of stick around the longest," Fordham said.

"Just looking at the women's side and on the World Cup, usually there's some young athletes that can break through but most of the time it's the late 20s, early 30s that are really succeeding, just with a bigger base and that they've built more.

"I'm definitely looking forward to the next three years and then I would really like to race in Utah in seven years.

"That's actually really exciting for me because it's one of the places that I've had a lot of breakthrough races. 

"I had a fourth at US Nationals there, then my first college podium was there and then just this year I won two NCAA titles at that exact race course. 

"That course has a special place in, like, my career, so I would love to make it that far.

"But in the short term, World Champs this year and then the next Olympic Games in France and just trying to build on fitness and technique and then make some gains to be able to push up from where I've been.

"I have the highest finish at World Cup, World Champs and Olympics of an Australian ever, but I don't see that as the ending. I'd like to be better than I was last year, and the year before. 

"Even though I currently have the highest-placed results, I want to make them even higher."