Five years apart at Jindabyne Central School on Ngarigo land, Josie Baff and Adam Lambert didn’t exactly get to know each other well in the playground.

But after years of pursuing their passion for snowboarding while balancing their studies, the pair find themselves together in the Australian team at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics starting tonight.

Baff and Lambert are both medal chances in the rough and tumble sport of snowboard cross and may well combine for the unisex teams’ event where they’d also be in contention for a podium finish.

Ranked No.1 in the world after a last start World Cup victory in China, Lambert is heading to his third Games while Baff is the No.2 rated woman at her second Olympics.

The pair is joined by another five NSW Public school alumni spread from Gosford down to the south coast: Abbey Willcox (Henry Kendall High School – aerial skiing), Valentino Guseli (Narooma High School – snowboard halfpipe), Maddison Hoffman (Newport Public School – alpine skiing), Emily Arthur (Distance Education) and Cooper Woods (Pambula Public School, Jindabyne Central School - moguls) for the Milano Cortina Games.

With a roll call of former Winter Olympians, it’s Jindabyne – now operating as Jindabyne Public School and Jindabyne High School on a new $160 million site – that is garnering the most attention when it comes to Australian schools embracing elite snow sports.

Set on expansive new grounds in the iconic NSW High Country, the school has a range of specialised learning spaces for the arts, technology, hospitality, sport and design.

It offers flexible learning arrangements to support students pursuing high-level commitments in snowsports, mountain biking, equestrian, and rugby union, ensuring they can balance training, travel, and academic success.

A 30-minute drive to the ski fields of Perisher and Thredbo, the school is also only a hop, step and ski jump to the National Snowsports Training Centre where snow athletes can train year-round.

“As a growing school in a unique alpine community, we proudly embrace the opportunities our environment provides,” Jindabyne High School Principal Kelly Henretty said.

“Our flexible learning arrangements and explicit teacher enable students to pursue sporting excellence while maintaining strong academic outcomes.”

A standout example of that is Blake Wigger, Dux of 2025, who successfully sustained his swimming training schedule while achieving an ATAR of 99.6, the highest result of any regional NSW school.

With the primary school also on the same grounds, it offers a seamless transition for students - and with Josie Baff’s mother Petrina teaching there - some potentially very valuable insights into what it takes to be a Winter Olympian.

The schools also allow students from around the state to study there, continuing their education while participating in snow sports programs.

Woods, who made the moguls final in his first Olympics four years ago, was once such athlete to do that, while world champion moguls skier Britt Cox and Olympic silver medallist Matt Graham have also spent time at the school.

Guseli travelled from the coast to snowboard in the mountains before eventually taking on distance education and is chance of a medal after also qualifying for the halfpipe final in 2022.

Willcox, who is something of a veteran, was vice-captain at Henry Kendall High School and a highly gifted young athlete who graduated in 2013.

Hoffman only spent her primary school years in NSW before moving to Utah with her parents, but she was a standout skier even as a junior. In 2011 she was part of the school team that finished second in the national titles for primary co-education, no mean feat for a public school on Sydney’s northern beaches.