Australia’s brightest Olympic hopefuls delivered a golden day for the home crowd at Falls Creek, with Phillip Bellingham and Rosie Fordham taking out the men’s and women’s titles at the 2025 Kangaroo Hoppet – the southern hemisphere’s premier cross-country ski marathon.
In front of close to 1,000 competitors and spectators from 24 nations, Bellingham, a triple Olympian, claimed his long-awaited first Kangaroo Hoppet crown. Fordham, fresh from her recent Australian Championship win and U23 World Championship silver medal earlier this year, stormed to her maiden Hoppet title in the women’s field.
The 42-kilometre marathon is renowned not just as an elite-level race but as the beating heart of the Australian cross-country skiing community, with hundreds of recreational skiers tackling the challenge simply to cross the finish line.
For Bellingham, victory carried deep personal meaning.
“So happy. That meant everything to me. I’ve been trying to do that my entire career,” he said. “It’ll be the last one I’ll do while I’m in form – I’m done after this. Seve [de Campo] is actually in better form than me at the moment, so I just had to sit in. I’ve come second in the same situation before and I know how hard it is right to the end. I’m just so happy.”
Fordham, meanwhile, relished the chance to race in front of Australia’s passionate skiing community.
“That was really fun. The boys strung it out, then I caught up to Liam and Christoph and we skied together for a bit,” Fordham said. “It got a little bit soft at the end, but it was awesome. It’s like the whole Australian ski community is here. I haven’t seen this many Australians out skiing – it’s so cool to be here with all of them. I wish I had come to the Hoppet as a kid, but I’ll definitely be back.”
The Kangaroo Hoppet is the largest snow sports event in the southern hemisphere and part of the prestigious Worldloppet Ski Federation series, connecting marathon ski races across 20 nations.
For Bellingham, it was a crowning career moment; for Fordham, the start of what promises to be many more. And for the Australian cross-country skiing community, it was another unforgettable chapter in the legacy of the Kangaroo Hoppet.
