It was supposed to be a moment when the team came together, but instead, Jarryd Hughes’s Winter Olympics silver medal shone the spotlight on a longstanding rift between him and team-mate Alex “Chumpy” Pullin.
On Thursday, Hughes came second in the men’s cross snowboarding, claiming Australia’s third medal of the 2018 Games. Pullin, who finished sixth, pointedly refused to congratulate him, forcing team officials to publicly acknowledge a years-long schism within the team.
The head of Australia’s Olympics Winter Institute, Geoff Lipshut, opened up, telling reporters that the two did not get along.
“Those are personal issues they have,” he said. “We’ve set up a process where they are happy to be on the same team here and they all get on well enough to do their sport.
“That’s all we ask of them,” he added.
The animosity stems from a funding dispute that first came to a head four years ago at the Sochi Games. Hughes, along with a group of other Olympians including Scotty James and Torah Bright, attacked the institute over what they saw as preferential funding for Pullin. On social media, he described himself as a member of “Team Outcast”.
Hughes trains with his own coaches separate from the Australian team, but still receives funding from the Australian Olympics Committee.
Thursday’s final saw the reigning gold medallist, France’s Pierre Vaultier, reclaim his title, followed by Hughes, and then Spain’s Regino Herández in third place.
Pullin, who was considered Australia’s gold medal hope, crashed midway through the race and then left without speaking to Hughes.
He instead congratulated other snowboarders, hi-fiving fellow Australian Cam Bolton, who did not qualify for the final, and even hugging the winner, Vaultier.
Feuds among athletes on the same team are not uncommon, and Lipshut denied the ongoing tensions had affected the Australian team at this year’s Games.
“No one crossed each other and the lead-up here has been respectful...We said ‘you’re all going to be in the same team, you better get used to it’. It’s just dog-eat-dog out there. That’s the type of sport it is. If you want dog-eat-dog you need some big dogs.”
When pressed on Pullin’s snub, Hughes said he was unfussed. “We’re an individual sport,” he said. “We all want to beat each other. It is what it is.”
Pullin, who also fronts a reggae band in his spare time, was Australia’s flagbearer for the 2014 opening ceremony.
