Australia has finished with four medals at the 2025 FIS World Championships in St Mortiz, Switzerland, after Danielle Scott claimed a bronze medal in the aerial skiing event on the last day of competition. The medal performance is Scott’s fourth World Championship podium over her decorated career.
 
Competing in warm conditions at the iconic Swiss resort, three Australian women competed in the best of two jump opening round of finals and Danielle Scott landed two great jumps to advance to the top-six super final in second place from her best score of 98.34 for her double full-full triple twisting double somersault.
 
Current World Cup Champion and two-time World Champion Laura Peel was very unlucky to miss out on the super final in seventh place, after touching a hand on landing on both her triple somersault jumps. Peel’s highest score was on her full-full-full jump with 85.86 points putting her in sixth place on the bubble for the super final but was relegated to seventh on the last jump of the round by Chinese skier Xuezheng Chen. Airliegh Frigo, was behind Peel in eighth landing both jumps with a best score of 79.06 on her full-full.
 
In the super final, Scott again put down another great score on her double full-full triple twisting double somersault, scoring 96.93 points to finish in third place and fourth career World Championship medal.
 
Finish ahead of Scott was American Kaila Kuhn who claimed the first victory of her career scoring 105.13 with Mengtao Xu of China in second on 99.16.
 
“So happy, I literally did everything I could, every jump today was on the money” said the 35-year-old Scott from NSW, who trains in Brisbane at the Geoff Henke Olympic Winter Training Centre water jump facility.”
 
“Not doing triple somersaults, I was really focused on myself and maximising those points and it did pay off, so I am really excited for what’s ahead now.”
 
“It’s been a bit funny here with the weather, we have had everything, flat light, snow, head and tail winds, and then the wind came in right on our last training jump, but the coaching team handled it well. This season has been a special one, the team around us has really bonded and that strength is showing, there is a lot of confidence in that and for me it’s about getting the speeds right, so thanks to the team.”
 
“Bring it on, I am so excited for the next 12 months, it’s been a bit of a rough run for me, I did barely any training heading into this season, due to a couple of personal reasons, but my Dad’s fighting, he’s doing well now, I dedicate this medal to him.”
 
Australia’s World Championship campaign has finished with four medals in St Moritz, snowboard halfpipe gold to James, silver in snowboard cross mixed teams to Mia Clift and Cam Bolton, bronze to Matt Graham in the dual moguls and Scott in the aerials.

It takes a special person to think it’s a good idea to become an aerial skier.

It’s one of the most dangerous Olympic Winter Sports.

Aerial skiers pelt down an icy ramp at 60+ kilometers per hour, launch themselves off a vertically inclined ramp, soar up to 15 metres into the air, and perform multiple flips and twists before landing on a steep, slippery slope.
Watching it is mind-boggling: It’s hard to conceive how anyone can learn to perform such stunts.
It’s also hard to believe that our sun-soaked country has a rich history of success in this gravity-defying sport. But we do!

Kirstie Marshall and Jacqui Cooper set the lofty standards back in the day and blazed a formidable trail for future generations of young Australian aerial skiers, both claiming World titles and 80 World Cup medals between them. 
Since then, Australia has five World Champions in the event and of the 19 medals Australia has won at the Winter Olympics, five have been won by aerial skiers. 

Alisa Camplin-Warner AM won Australia's first freestyle skiing Olympic gold in 2002, followed with bronze in Torino 2006. Five-time Olympian, Lydia Lassila OAM, followed the same gold-bronze streak in Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014, respectively.

Albeit Australia's rich aerials history is female dominant, David Morris also claimed the first Men's Olympic aerials medal for Australia at Sochi 2014, with a silver medal.

Many an Olympic program would love to have the record of success that aerial skiing has enjoyed.
In World Cup competitions, Australia has won a spectacular 88 gold medals, the fourth-most of any nation behind Canada, China and the United States.

This success is even more impressive given the primitive facilities they used to train in when in Australia.
Most aerial skiers will spend at least half the year at an aquatic training facility - literally a ski jump that leads into a pool, rather than a slope – where they practice their aerial skills until they are confident enough to attempt them on snow.

From the pioneering ‘Flying Kangaroos’ until recently, the athletes used a water jump facility near Lilydale on Melbourne’s outskirts and it was like jumping into a dirty brown farm dam.

In fact, it pretty much was jumping into a dirty brown farm dam.

However, the sport received a huge boost with the opening of the world class Geoff Henke Water Ramp facility located at Brisbane’s Sleeman Sports Centre in late 2020.

The impressive facility allowed the aerial skiers to train all year round on home soil, keeping them internationally competitive without the tiresome travel. A game changer.

Success clearly breeds success, and today’s crop are sustaining the legacy.

Laura Peel and Danielle Scott are the current standouts - Peel is Australia’s first aerial skiing double World Champion and current World Cup Crystal Globe winner (overall World Cup winner), while Scott is a dual World Cup Crystal Globe winner - both are Olympic veterans and eyeing a fourth berth at Milano Cortina next year.

In early February, the Flying Kangaroos completed a remarkable clean sweep of the first four places at a FIS Freestyle World Cup event in Deer Valley – the iconic venue where Camplin-Warner famously won her Olympic gold.
Peel claimed top seed ahead of Scott, and emerging stars Abbey Willcox and Airleigh Frigo were third and fourth respectively.

It was the first time Australia had swept the podium in any winter sport, let alone the top four, and put the world on notice less than a year out from the 2026 Winter Olympics.

So, what’s the key to success in this breath-taking sport? Mindset.

Not a single athlete jumps without fear.

According to Victorian Institute of Sport Performance Psychology Manager, Dan Dymond, the most important thing psychologically is “connecting with your ability to do it, irrespective of the fear - the ability to take yourself to places that your opponent isn't willing to.”

Who wouldn’t be afraid? One mishap - a botched launch, an arm slightly askew, an unexpected tailwind - can have disastrous consequences. Bad conditions, a crash, even seeing someone else fall can get into an athlete’s head, planting seeds of doubt.

Marshall’s career was interrupted by 12 knee operations; Camplin-Warner broke nearly every bone in her body as she climbed through the ranks; Lassila battled excruciating knee injuries to make it to the pinnacle, and while Peel has never broken a bone, she’s had shoulder reconstruction and a couple of ankle surgeries.

Injuries become inevitable, even mainstream, in the world of winter sports.

And yet, in the world’s top ten in aerials, there’s not much of an athletic difference - it’s a mental difference.

“If you can dig deeper, as in lean into what's really hard, more than the person who's competing next to you, you're going to move the probability needle in your direction and have greater chances of success,” said Dymond.

It comes down to putting mind over matter - eliminating negative thoughts, practicing relaxation and breathing techniques, visualisation and envisioning success.
Camplin-Warner once said she achieved what she did in sport by “controlling and maximising my mind, as well as my body.”

"For me, probably the greatest thing that unlocked my potential was when I started working with a performance psychologist,” said Camplin-Warner.

"I was able to acquire tools and techniques that unlocked my mindset and set me up to focus on what I can control and regulate under pressure and find my courage and trust within myself to be the ultimate athlete that I could be."

Lassila’s career was marked by mental resilience which spawned trailblazing achievements.

She overcame a succession of injury problems, including two knee reconstructions, to triumph in Vancouver. Her daring attempts, like the quad-twisting triple somersault in Sochi 2014, left an indelible mark on the sport, and she made history as the first Australian woman to compete in five Winter Olympics at PyeongChang 2018.

Interestingly, many of Australia’s aerialists who enjoyed success on the snow transferred their passion, resilience and competitive grit into stunningly successful careers off the slopes.

After hanging her one-piece ski suit, Marshall was successfully elected as a Member of Parliament in the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the Australian Labor Party.

Cooper continued to use her skillset and the many tools in her toolbox in every area of her life - she became a successful motivational speaker, a business owner, an author, an entrepreneur, and a mum to three children.

Upon retirement, Camplin-Warner turned to the corporate world and spent 16 years with IBM in senior roles, she has held numerous leadership roles in sport, including Chair of the Australian Sports Foundation and Director of the Collingwood Football Club, and was recently named as the first female to lead the country’s Winter Olympic Team as Chef de Mission for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

Lassila’s resilient and entrepreneurial spirit in sport was the foundation for her success beyond the ski suit - she founded BodyICE in 2007, a now global company forged from her days of adversity that provides innovative cold therapy products, and in 2020, launched ZONE by Lydia, a sustainable yoga and wellness brand driven by her passion for yoga, living mindfully and the environment.

Their success was not magic or accidental, it was the result of hard work, dedication and possessing certain personality traits that lend themselves to high achievement.

“When you think about the sport and the type of psychological requirements - more openness to experience, a bit more sensation seeking and more tolerance to anxiety and adrenaline - those kinds of psychological traits are more complimentary to confronting things that are scary, and being open to trying new things,” said Dymond.

“The constant exposure to the adrenaline and the high octane and challenging movements opens their minds to what’s possible and they are more likely to say - “yes, I’m going to do this, I'm not actually 100% sure what's going to happen, but I’m going to do this” - it's that willingness to take a risk,” added Dymond.

In many ways, aerial skiing seems like the ultimate manifestation of intention. 

What you think, you do. What you think, you become. 

This ideology may just be on show for all to watch next week. 

A stacked World Cup season has just come to an end, but the World Championships now loom less than a fortnight away. With tired bodies on the line, mind over matter may just be the difference between securing a World title, or not. 

VIS aerial skier Laura Peel won the final World Cup event of the season with a stunning performance on the 2026 Olympic course in Livigno, Italy, her fifth victory of the season and the 14th of her impressive career. In doing so, Peel claimed her third FIS World Cup Crystal Globe as the number one ranked athlete at the end of World Cup circuit.

Australian female aerial skiers have amassed a total of 14 Crystal Globes over the past 33 years. Peel now has the second-highest total among Australians with three, trailing only the legendary Jacqui Cooper, who has five. Other winners include Kirstie Marshall, Alisa Camplin, Lydia Lassila, and Danielle Scott.

Heading into to the final event, Peel had a near unbeatable lead in the standings and only needed to finish 12th or better to secure the title, leading Chinese skier Mengtao Xu by 78 points. Peel made sure of that by qualifying for the 12-woman final in second place. Joining Peel in finals were VIS teammates Airleigh Frigo in fifth, Abbey Willcox seventh and Danielle Scott 10th. Just missing finals action by one place was Elise Coleiro in 13th and in the men’s event Reilly Flanagan was 17th.

Peel performed a lay-full-full double twisting triple back somersault in the first round of finals, to advance to the top six super-final in second place on 91.83 points. Just missing out on the medal round were Abbey Willcox in seventh, Airleigh Frigo ninth and Danielle Scott 11th.

In the super-final Peel upped her degree of difficulty scoring what was an unbeatable 112.90 points for her spectacular full-full-full triple twisting triple back somersault in one of her best jumps of the season. Second place went to Xu of China on 105.17 and her teammate Meiting Chen was third on 91.44.

“I am so stoked, honestly I couldn’t be happier, it’s globe number three, I don’t think it gets any easier,” said the 35-year-old Peel from Canberra.

“That’s day four on this site now. I’ve got to say I really like it. It’s been working well for me, I’ve been jumping well. That’s a relief and I’m so excited to come back here for the Olympics.”

Peel finished the season number one on 542 points, 98 clear of Xu on 444 and Scott was third on 368, it is the sixth time in her career Scott has placed in the top three on final season rankings. Willcox and Frigo both had the highest rankings of their careers in fifth and 10th places respectively.

The season will conclude at the FIS World Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland. First up will be the aerial teams event on March 27, to be followed by individual qualifications on March 29 and finals March 30.

Peel, Scott, Willcox and Frigo will represent Australia in the women’s event and Flanagan will be the lone Aussie in the men’s competition.

Peel is aiming for her third World Championship gold in Switzerland. She commented, “pretty much keep the same plan, what I have been doing I just want to repeat the same at the World Champs, it’s a long season, everyone is getting a bit tired, but we are super exited to head to St Moritz and it’s the peak of our season.”

VIS aerial skiers Laura Peel and Danielle Scott made it a double World Cup podium celebration in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where Peel claimed gold and Scott bronze.
 
The victory completed a terrific turnaround for Peel, after qualifying in last place in the 12-woman final, but then landed both triple back somersaults in the first final and then the medal round to record the 13th World Cup victory of her career.
 
Four VIS women qualified for finals with Scott in first, Airleigh Frigo seventh, Abbey Willcox eighth and Peel in 12th. First year World Cup athlete, Elise Coleiro was 13th to just miss the final and matching her career best finish.
 
In the first round of finals, Peel performed a lay-full-full triple somersault scoring 93.85 placing her third, Scott scored 91.66 for her full-full double somersault putting her in fourth and Willcox made it three Aussies in the super-final in sixth place, scoring 84.96 for her full-full jump. Missing out on the super-final was Frigo in 12th on 60.79 for her full-full.
 
In the medal round, Peel increased her difficult adding an extra twist jumping full-full-full to score a massive 115.91 points in first place and her fourth victory of the season. Mengtao Xu of China was second on 101.74, Scott was third and after increasing her difficulty performing a double full-full (triple twisting double somersault) which scored 87.06. Willcox finished sixth jumping a different triple twist variation but missing the landing to score 65.56.
 
“I feel great, really relieved. I think I got a little lucky, I snuck into the final, so I’m just happy to be jumping,” said Peel, the 35-year-old double World Champion from Canberra.
 
In the men’s competition Reilly Flanagan performed a lay full single twisting double somersault to finish 31st.
 
With one event remaining, Peel is on 442 points on top of the World Cup standings, increasing her lead to 78 points ahead of Xu, Scott is third 98 points behind Peel. Also in the top-10 for Australia are Willcox sixth and Frigo ninth.
 
The final World Cup of the season will take place at the 2026 Olympic venue in Livigno, Italy, on March 13.
 
Peel is in prime position to secure her third career World Cup crystal globe if she can finish 12th or better in Italy.
 
Peel said: “I’m in a good spot, but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself. One jump at a time, but I’m really happy.”