Thirty-seven of Australia’s 310 Winter Olympians were born outside Australia and two – moguls skier Dale Begg-Smith (born in Canada) and short track speed skater Richard Nizielski (born in England) – have won medals. But did you know three Australian-born competitors have won medals for other countries and that list could grow longer in Milano?
New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synott’s silver in the women’s snowboard big air on day 3 in Milano-Cortina is the seventh medal won by an Australian-born competitor for another nation at the Winter Olympics. Zoi grew up on Sydney’s northern beaches until the age of six. At the last Games in Beijing, the Sydney-born athlete became New Zealand’s first ever Winter Olympic gold medallist when she won the women’s snowboard slopestyle and will defend her title on day 10. She also won big air bronze in 2018 and silver in 2022.
Freddie McEvoy took bronze at the 1936 Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, as captain of the four-man British bobsled team. Born in Melbourne in 1907, he moved to England with his family when he was 10. With his dashing good looks and charm, McEvoy was a three-times married womanising adventurer and a friend of screen star Errol Flynn. Freddie smuggled guns and diamonds on his yacht between California and Mexico and was rumoured to have worked as a spy. He died in 1951 when his boat struck a reef off during a storm off Casablanca.
You can read more about him in Robert Upe’s Sydney Morning Herald 2018 article The Wild Life and Death of Freddie McEvoy.
Christine Nesbitt was born in Melbourne to an Australian mother and Canadian father. The family returned to Canada when she was young where she grew up in London, Ontario, initially playing ice hockey before transitioning to short track speed skating aged 12, then speed skating at 18. Nesbitt competed at three Olympics (2006, 2010, 2014), her career highlights coming with silver in the team pursuit in Torino in 2006 and gold in the 1000m Vancouver in 2010, Canada’s only individual speed skating gold at those home Games.
USA’s Chevonne Forgan could add to that tally in the women’s doubles luge which makes its debut in Milano. Forgan was born in Adelaide and grew up in the Coromandel Valley, attending Belair Primary School. She had never seen snow until her family moved to Boston because of her father’s work when she was 10. Forgan and partner Sophie Kirkby are two-time world championship medalists and have posted multiple podium finishes this season. US broadcaster NBC did a recent profile on Chevonne here.