A new 20-year agreement to better support Aerial Skiing athletes has been announced at Mt Buller, making the alpine village an official Olympic Training Centre and Victoria’s home for the development of future Olympic and World Champions in Aerial and Mogul Skiing.
 
Under the landmark agreement between the Olympic Winter Institute Australia (OWIA), the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS), Buller Ski Lifts, Mt Buller Resort Management Board and Ski and Snowboard Australia, Aerial Skiing athletes can look forward to improved facilities and access at Mt Buller that will enhance the effectiveness of athlete training programs.
 
The existing Olympic Training Centre activities based at Mt Buller were recognised by the Australian Olympic Committee in 1995 and have been crucial in helping to produce five Olympic and fifteen World Championship medals, including Olympic gold Medallists Alisa Camplin (2002) and Lydia Lassila (2010).  
 
OWIA Chairman Geoff Henke AO paid tribute to the advances winter sports have made.
 
“Winter sports have had remarkable success over the past decade, and now sit only behind Swimming and Sailing on current Olympic Sport high performance rankings. We are delighted to announce this partnership with Mt Buller to help more Australians reach the pinnacle of winter sport success for years to come,” Geoff Henke said.
 
Extended operations at Mt Buller include a 20-year lease of an accommodation facility of 20-25 beds for OWIA/VIS athlete and program staff, night training access for both the Aerials and Mogul Skiing courses, the development and access to a specialised acrobatic centre, gym access and a meeting/study room.
 
“The agreement will no doubt help us to continue to excel in a sport we’ve had so much success in over the years,” said PyeongChang 2018 Australian Olympic Team Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman.

“Having won 10 World Cup medals and two World Championships medals this past season, along with a number of junior athletes coming through the ranks, we are sure to go from strength-to-strength in the sport in the coming years. It will be great that these athletes will be able to spend part of their year on home soil training.”
 
On-site accommodation for Aerial athletes and program staff at Mt Buller make it the only resort in Australia where Olympic athletes can live on mountain and train both day and night.
 
Earthworks, snow making and lights installation for the Aerials site and Mogul course on Chamois Run will also provide more effective and productive training for OWIA/VIS and SSA athletes.
 
Under the agreement, 25 night-time jumping sessions per season, sport specific acrobatic training and more ski time for the athletes by living on mountain will be added to the existing VIS program.
 
“As part of this historic agreement, Buller Ski Lifts will be upgrading the snowmaking facilities on the Chamois Run and installing lights so that athletes can train day and night,” Laurie Blampied, General Manager, Buller Ski Lifts said.
 
“We’re also extending our arrangement to keep the tremendously successful Victorian Interschools Snowsports Championships at Mt Buller for at least another five years.”  

A driving force to assist winter athletes has come from Rino Grollo and his family.
 “Diana and our family have been partners with the Winter Olympic movement since Lillehammer in 1994,” Rino Grollo, Chair, Grollo Group explained.

“Buller Ski Lifts has been a partner of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia since its inception in 1997, and we are very proud of the success that our winter athletes have enjoyed in the past and look forward to sharing the future successes that this new partnership will enable.”

For aspiring winter athletes, the opportunity to train alongside the best will be a reality.

 “This is wonderful news for athletes, parents, children and visitors to Mt Buller. Young skiers will be able to watch their heroes train right beside the Village Square, then follow their dreams from ski school to the Victorian Interschools, involvement in Mt Buller Sports Clubs, and then on to an elite training program – all right here at Mt Buller. And the FIS dual moguls course will also be open to all skiers when it’s not required for training,” said Andy Evans, Director, Mt Buller Mt Stirling Resort Management Board.

Aerial Skiing training has been a fixture at Mt Buller since the sport’s inception in the mid-1980s when Kirstie Marshall became Australia’s first international representative in the new winter discipline.
 
Marshall went on to become Australia’s first Aerial Skiing World Champion, paving the way for Jacqui Cooper, Alisa Camplin and the current all-World Cup medallist squad, which includes Olympic gold medallist Lydia Lassila, Olympic silver medallist David Morris, 2015 World Champion Laura Peel, 2016/17 World number two Danielle Scott and three-time World Cup medallist Samantha Wells.
 
Ski and Snowboard Australia has welcomed the increased support.
 
“Mt Buller has always been an important partner for our sport and in particular Aerial Skiing. We are delighted to partner with the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia and Mt Buller to extend their athlete training programs. We also welcome the long-term vision of Mt Buller in supporting winter sport and are pleased to be extending the rights to host the Victorian Interschools at Mt Buller,” Dean Gosper, President Ski & Snowboard Australia said.

Formal contracts will be finalised in the coming months with the Centre expected to be up and running by winter 2018.
 

There’s much, much more to three-time World Cup Aerial Skiing medalist Sam Wells than the dedicated athlete she undoubtedly is.

Sam Wells, dubbed the quiet achiever, is in a very good place personally and in her sport.

A self-acknowledged ‘busy’ person, Wells combines training with a final year of her Bachelor of Health Science degree, holds a Level 4 Certificate in fitness and is an accomplished cook who raises funds for the Cancer Council through her Biggest Morning Teas.

With one Olympics and three World Cup medals under her Flying Kangaroo belt, Wells wants more.

“Medals are a tick, but the gold one is on the to do list. I’ve got a silver and two bronzes. I want to stand on the top,” she said from Park City in Utah.

“I’ve been doing a lot of things in my training, which started at Lilydale in April (in Victoria) and we’ve been working on both of my triple twisting doubles.”

“As sub-par as Lilydale may seem, it was a bonus for me. We worked on the single and spent a ton of time on doubles on the bungy. In twenty-minutes I can punch out 40 or 50 doubles and then transfer that to the ramps.”

“Being able to get the reps on the bungy has been a real secret weapon for me.”

“In Park City, I have been able to transfer all the things I worked on from Lilydale and it’s been a much smoother transition,” she said.

By the end of July Wells was up to her full degree of difficulty (DD) and improving her form in the air.  

“Our competition is based on consistency. For me to jump DD consistently is important. On my double in last year I was having difficulty keep my feet together so I’ve been working on that. The water ramps are helping me find the correct prompts and cues.”
 
Water ramping for Aerial skiers is a complicated business and not for the faint-hearted. The Flying Kangaroos complete approximately nine jumps per session into the pool at Park City, which requires the ability to swim with skis on.
   
 “With a life jacket and boots that float it’s not that hard. You tuck your heels up so the skis are on the top of the water and get good at breaststroke,” Wells explained.  

“I weigh a lot more with my gear on. About 10 to 15kgs more than when I’m dry. I always think at training that walking up the stairs is the hardest part of the day but it’s good for our fitness too. Especially at altitude.”

Far from study taking a back seat, the 28-year-old has continued her Bachelor of Health Science majoring in health promotion.

“I chose to study it because it’s in the field I’m interested in. There are three subjects to go. Two this semester and one after the Olympics.”

Athletes who compartmentalise their training often have other interests.  Study and utilising time productively is key for the Newcastle native.

“You have to give your brain a rest sometimes,” she says when asked about training only. “I’d go mad otherwise.”

“Pursuing other goals gives me a sense of satisfaction, which helps me to be diligent and focused about my sport and more and not get burnt out thinking about Aerials all the time.”

 Wells also achieved a Certificate 4 in Fitness last year, which she added to her Certificate for Hospitality, “just to add to the repertoire”. 

Bringing together her skill in the kitchen to help others is a natural fit, which benefit her fellow athletes - who acknowledge Sam as ’definitely the best in the team kitchen’ and allows her to raise funds for the Cancer Council.  

For the third year Sam has hosted a Biggest Morning Tea after her interest in the project was sparked when she volunteered at the Cancer Council as part of her university course.   

“This year’s spread was pretty good and I raised over $600.  I plan on doing it forever. It’s amazing the difference the funds can do to make someone’s life a little better.

“I love making stuff. It doesn’t matter what it is. I like the challenge of seeing something from start to finish.”
Team dinners on Sam’s watch always means something different.

“We have to submit our meals for team camps but usually it’s, ‘Yay – Sam’s cooking’. There may be old favourites but I like to experiment every time.”

Recent meals for the team have included lemon, balsamic and ginger chicken burgers with charred corn capsicum and tomato and a mouth-watering rice noodle salad with pork sate patties.

Danielle Scott is more than happy to hand over the apron.

“Cooking is like an art for Sam and she is the winner in the chef department. She definitely loves to cook and we just like to get fed,” Scott said.

Wells attributes her culinary skills to her family.

“My mum is great cook, and her mum is a great cook. It’s about learning new skills and the mastery of the challenge,” she said.  

There’s no idle hands or an idle mind in the Wells’ household it seems - from making curtains, moccasins, hand sewing or a macramé wall hanging.

“Sewing and craft are high on my list. I love being genuinely busy and good at stuff.”

It’s ten years since Sam Wells has lived at home on the shores of Lake Macquarie in NSW but she will be home in mid-October for a short holiday, but if you want to keep up with this high achiever, you’d want to be up early.
 
 By Belinda Noonan
OWIA

At this time of year, training for Aerial Skiers has less to do with snow and much more with its warmer genesis.

The Flying Kangaroos have been in Park City, Utah since May honing their skills with water-ramping.

Current world silver medallist, multiple World Cup medallist and Sochi Olympian, Danielle Scott is one of Australia’s medal hopes next February who is making the most of her pre-Olympic training.

“So far it’s been water ramping, stepping up strength and conditioning and ballet (barre) for flexibility and body alignment,” Scott said.

“I already have the fluidity, but the barre work is used as cross training and helps with our posture, being tall and moving as one piece,” she explained.

Scott is not training new jumps but doing what she does better.  

“For me it’s refining what I have been doing and getting the jumps as perfect as I can.”

That means going into the water again and again.

“Training here is so important. Park City is one of the world’s best facilities. Everything is so close. The gym, shops and accommodation make it simple and easy. This place has so much to offer in summer and winter.”

Park City is home to the US aerial team and this year the Swiss and Chinese teams are training there as well.

 “You do see people throwing harder tricks off the water ramp because there is no ski-away. That’s a lighter side of being altogether in the one facility.”

Training for the Australians means long days and spending a lot of time together. 

A typical day begins at 8am with an hour in the gym, ramps from 10.30am until noon and again from 1.30pm to 3pm, followed by another gym session, physio, psych and video replay before a team dinner.

“Someone always cooks a team dinner. We take it in turns but Sam (Wells) definitely loves to cook and we just like to get fed. It’s like an art for her. She’s the winner in the chef department.”

Scott shares accommodation with Dave Morris, and the chat is continual.  

“First thing in the morning the banter begins. It’s constant. If someone had a recording it would be hilarious,” she said.
 
“There is not a lot of personal space and there are times when I get the go pro out and take some great footage. We all have different ways to relax and unwind.”  

The team will remain in Park City until early October.

“We are the mercy of the US. They design their perfect schedule and we have to fit around that."

 “We only get ninety-minute water ramp sessions with really short breaks, which is not great for recovery.”

Coaches Joe Davies and Jeff Bean are essential to the ongoing Aussie success.   

“With Joe’s technical expertise out there and Jeff’s second eye, they are right down to the minute details and really trying to maximise every point.”

Joe Davies, an American who formerly coached members of the US Aerial team, is a bonus for the Flying Kangaroos.   

“We have maintained good relations with other countries on the world tour,” Scott explained. “Joe has kept that respect and that helps us to use facilities like here in Park City and also in Switzerland. USA shut the Chinese out last season and that could have been us.”

“It’s time for us to have our own facility and not be at the mercy of other countries.”

Whilst Scott understands the decision of the NSW Government to not proceed with the Lennox Head facility in late May, she remains disappointed that neither Brisbane or Lennox Head have had a green light.

“For us to still not have a facility, it’s upsetting really. I respect where that community was coming from and before that I got my hopes up for Brisbane, thinking that we would have friends and family nearby.   

“Australia has such a rich history in Aerial Skiing and the future of the sport relies upon having a facility.”

Since the sport was first introduced to the Winter Olympics in 1994, Australia has won two gold (Alisa Camplin and Lydia Lassila), one silver (David Morris) and two  bronze (Alisa Camplin and Lydia Lassila).

Korea may not be the last Olympics for Danielle Scott.

“If a water ramp was built in Australia, I’d definitely continue.”

By Belinda Noonan OWIA