Danielle Scott has finished second overall for the season in the 2015/16 FIS Freestyle Skiing Aerials World Cup, after finishing second in the final event of the season in Minsk, Belarus.

The 25-year-old Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA)/Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) athlete was locked in a battle with World Cup leader, Ashley Caldwell of the United States.

After finishing first in qualifying, Scott entered the first final with confidence, putting in a good jump to finish equal fourth, and therefore qualifying for the Super Final.

With the top six qualifying for the Final, Scott was third to jump, and put in an excellent Double Full Full, a triple twist double somersault under pressure, scoring an impressive 96.93, and her second highest score for the season.

Caldwell though responded strongly. Last to jump, and with the World Cup title on the line, she finished with a score of 103.27 performing a Full Full Full, a triple twisting triple somersault to claim a good win, taking home the crystal globe as World Cup champion for 2015/16.

Following the event, Scott reflected on what was a thrilling finale to the aerials competition.

“I’m pretty happy with second overall; it’s one up from last season, so I guess it just keeps getting better and better,” Scott said.

With so many possible scenarios today, Scott maintained her focus on each individual performance.

“The strategy today was definitely dealing with the conditions and speed,” Scott said.

“I’ve had a little bit of trouble with that recently, so I just trusted the coaches were putting me in the right places and do what I needed to do,” she added.

Samantha Wells finished eighth overall in today’s event, after a very strong performance of 3rd place in the qualification round, while Renee McElduff finished in 17th place.

In the Men’s, David Morris finished 21st to finish the season inside the top ten, finishing ninth overall.

IMAGE: Danielle Scott (left) celebrates on the podium © FIS

Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA)/Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) athlete Samantha Wells has continued her good form after once again qualifying for the Super Final, this time finishing sixth, at the Aerial Skiing World Cup event in Moscow, Russia.

Conditions in Moscow were challenging for all athletes, as the event site, constructed from scaffolding, was subjected to high winds in the lead-up, which made training extremely difficult.

Wells suffered an injury during the week, making her performances even more impressive.

“On the second day of training I had a considerable crash on my first jump,” Wells said.

“I was way too slow due to wind and snow conditions, and injured my ankle, sidelining me for the day’” she added.

Following her best ever World Cup result in Deer Valley, USA last weekend, where she collected a Silver medal, Wells, with her ankle heavily strapped, put in a solid performance in qualifying, where she finished seventh, to secure a berth in the top twelve.

In the Final, Wells finished third after an excellent Full Full (bFF), scoring 85.36 and therefore qualifying for the Super Final.

“I got my speed in the right place to land a nice Full Full and finish in third position,” Wells said.

In the Super Final, Wells performed a Full Double Full (bFdF), scoring a 65.56 and securing a sixth placing overall.

“I hadn’t prepared any Full Double Fulls, but we decided to put it out there anyway and see how it went,” Wells said.

“The risk didn’t pay off. I made a bad call in the air to crash the landing and finished up sixth,” she said.

Danielle Scott, the defending Moscow World Cup Champion, was so close to also reaching the Finals, missing out by just one spot, after finishing 13th in Qualifying, whilst Renee McElduff finished in 16th.

In the Men’s, David Morris finished in 23rd place in Qualifying, therefore missing out on the finals action.

With one World Cup aerial event remaining, Danielle Scott is in second place, David Morris fifth, Samantha Wells ninth and Renee McElduff 15th on the World Cup standings.

Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA)/Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) athlete Danielle Scott has capped off an excellent weekend for the Australian Aerials team, by taking silver in the second of the World Cup events at Deer Valley, USA this afternoon (Australian time).

Following Samantha Wells second placing in yesterday’s first World Cup event of the double header weekend, Scott could not contain her excitement when she realised she had secured the silver at the 2002 Olympic resort.

Today’s women’s event was taken out by China’s Xin Zhang who finished with a score of 99.40, just 2.11 points clear of Scott with Ashley Caldwell of the United States third.

“I feel fantastic; I’m just soaking it up,” Scott said, shortly after her Super Final run.

“The atmosphere is so awesome here in Deer Valley,” she added.

Scott was thrilled with her performance, and said she felt relaxed leading up to her final jump.

“I just maintained my focus and went out and had fun, not thinking about things too much,” Scott said.

Scott progressed to the Super Final after finishing fourth in qualifying, and again in her first final run.

Scott was thrilled with her final jump and said once she landed it, there was then a nervous wait.

“I just had my fingers and toes crossed; I knew it was close and when I realised I was second, it was just a great feeling,” she said.

Renee McElduff and Samantha Wells finished 15th and 22nd respectively in qualifying today, to miss out on a place in today’s final
In the Men’s event, David Morris finished 24th in qualifying to miss out on a place in the finals.
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Petr Medulich of Russia was the overall winner, with Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine second, and Japan’s Naoya Tabara third.

The Australian Flying Kangaroos OWIA/VIS Aerial Skiing program has taken part in celebrating Snowbasin Resorts 75th year of operations.

Snowbasin, situated in Utah, USA, is the North American home of the Flying Kangaroos OWIA/VIS Australian Aerial Skiing program.

Steeped in history, Snowbasin Resort opened in 1940 as the 'Ogden Snow Basin Winter Playground' and proudly hosted the 2002 Olympic Games' Downhill, Combined and Super G races.
 
Australian Olympic Gold Medallists Alisa Camplin and Lydia Lassila also feature at the resort, with their own signature Gondola, recognised alongside many of the greatest snowsports athletes in history from all over the world

At a special celebration at the resort, OWIA and VIS athletes were on hand to meet the Snowbasin guests and sign autographs at the base of the resort.

Snowbasin is having a fabulous winter season, with excellent snow and many days of perfect weather for the athletes to enjoy skiing at one of the North America’s very best ski resorts.

IMAGE: The Australian Flying Kangaroo Aerial Skiing athletes with Snowbasin Resort General Manager John Loomis.

Following the Beijing World Cup before Christmas, the OWIA/VIS Aerial Skiing Program enjoyed a much deserved break.

The team is now back together in Val St Come, Quebec, Canada, and began training on the 8th of January.

Due to unseasonably warm weather conditions on the east coast of North America the program has had to make adjustments with training camp dates and competition schedules. 

The program started training slightly later than planned due to snow conditions and the Lake Placid World Cup has unfortunately been cancelled for the first time in almost twenty years.

This will be used as an opportunity to train and make the most of the extra time now available in the lead up to the next event in Deer Valley, Utah, USA.

Deer Valley will now run an additional Aerial event to make up for the Lake Placid cancellation, on Thursday February 4.

OWIA/VIS athlete David Morris is on top of the world after the opening round of the 2015/16 FIS Men’s Aerials World Cup.

Morris is the world number one ranked athlete after another magnificent performance on Day two in Beijing.

After taking out third place on Saturday in the opening Men’s individual event of the season, Morris was back in action on Sunday night (Australian time) competing in the Team’s event, finishing second overall in the Men’s section.

This was enough for Morris to secure the overall lead in the World Cup standings, and therefore complete a remarkable return to competition, after sitting out the 2014/15 season.

The 2014 Sochi Olympic Silver Medallist was naturally ecstatic at the conclusion of the official presentations.

“I couldn’t have asked for a much better start to the season,” Morris said. “I felt that I had to prove something upon returning and make sure everyone knew I still meant business, and everything went perfectly to plan with another podium today.”

“It’s my first gold bib and I’m just very thankful to my coaches and support staff for getting me through a tough two days of competition,” Morris added.
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Morris was also full of praise for his new coach Jeff Bean.

“A lot of hard work with Jeff has paid off and the results speak for themselves,” a proud Morris stated.

It was also a positive start to the World Cup campaign for our Ladies’ with Danielle Scott in fourth place after the opening weekend.

After missing last season due to injury, Samantha Wells has made a solid return to competition also, and lies in 13th position overall, with Renee McElduff finishing in 19th place.
 
Jeff Bean was full of praise for the trio.

“Renee had been battling a few injuries and struggled to land, but is healthier now and was able to gain confidence from her training,” Bean said. “Sam has been making great progress and Danielle had a good weekend of jumping.”

The final day of competition was an historic occasion for Australia, as it marked the first time the nation has participated in the team aerials competition. Team Australia also created history in the event, becoming the first team to be represented by two women in the three person team.

Remarkably the team qualified through to the finals ahead of traditional powers with two male athletes, USA and Canada.  In the first round of the finals, David Morris again led the way with an excellent 122 point quad twist, triple somersault jump, while Danielle Scott saved her best for last, with a very good 92 point triple twist double. Unfortunately Sam Wells just missed the final landing on a double twist double and Australia narrowly missed a spot in the three team super final, just behind eventual winner, China 1.  

The next Aerials World Cup event will be held at Lake Placid (USA) beginning on 15th January.

IMAGE: David Morris celebrates his world number #1 ranking in Beijing © Jessie Mayo

OWIA/VIS athletes David Morris and Danielle Scott have both made a great start to their 2015/16 World Cup campaign at the season opening event in Beijing, China, claiming third and fourth place performances.

After finishing ninth in the qualifying round earlier in the afternoon, Morris progressed to the Super Final by finishing fourth in the 1st Final.

Morris and Russia’s Petr Medulich fought it out for the minor placings, with the Russian scraping through to finish second, just 1.17 points clear of Morris in third.

For the second year running, the home nation’s Guangpu Qi took out the men’s event, with a fabulous performance, to finish well clear of Medulich and Morris.

Following the official presentations, Morris reflected on his terrific opening round performance.

“I’m really happy with the result of my return to aerials. I felt a lot of pressure to perform well as a returning Olympic medallist, but just concentrated on the same things as always,” Morris said. “I jumped with confidence and with purpose.”

It was a tough competition which Morris noted.

“Everyone jumped well; it was a fantastic competition, and I was fortunate enough to come out with a medal,” Morris said.

In the Ladies’ competition, fellow OWIA/VIS athlete Danielle Scott came through qualifying in second place, after a solid opening performance.

Scott was the only Australian to progress to the finals, after Samantha Wells and Renee McElduff were unable to progress from the qualifying round, finishing 15th and 18th respectively.

After qualifying for the Super Final in fourth place, it was a great battle between the finalists, with Scott eventually settling for fourth place.

Scott was satisfied with her opening performance and was also full of praise for the venue.

“Today went pretty well and it was a great event on a fantastic site,” Scott said.

“I’m happy with my jumps leading into the Super Final, but unfortunately got a little caught up on the landing.”
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Ashley Caldwell from the United States took out first place, from Zhang Xin of China in second, with American Kiley McKinnon third.

IMAGE: The OWIA/VIS Aerial Team in Beijing © Danielle Scott

OWIA/VIS aerial skier Danielle Scott’s strong start to the season has left the 24-year-old with a World Cup ranking of number three.

Scott’s impressive position has resulted from the weekend’s double header in Beijing, China, where she picked up 80 points in the season opener with a second place in a nail biting super final and a further 50 points as a result of a fourth best score in the qualification session of the team event overnight (Australian time).

China’s Mengtao Xu leads the standings with 200 points, ahead of American Kiley McKinnon, who has 10 points more than the Australian.

Along with fellow OWIA/VIS athletes Laura Peel, currently ninth on the standing, and Renee McElduff, who is in 11th position, Scott is moving towards the elite ranks after just three years on the World Cup circuit.

While the three Australians were unable to progress to the finals in the team event, coach Jeff Bean said that the event still provided a numbers of positive aspects for the season ahead.

“We learn a lot from every competition day and this was no exception,” he said.

“All three girls were able to compete performing their highest degree of difficulty jumps, which is great training for the rest of the season and World Championships in January.

“Dani had a great two days of competition.  

“In the sport of aerials everything we do is magnified so a small mistake can drastically change your result.

“Dani was very focused on staying calm and she did that in both competitions. In the end it all comes down to good hard training which all the girls have done.”

Bean said that another of the pleasing things to come from the Beijing double header was McElduff’s performances in the two events.

“Renee had never scored over 80 points on her full full before and she did it twice here,” Bean said.

The team now starts a Christmas break until December 30 when they will head back to Ruka, Finland, for a 10-day training camp in preparation for the World Championships.

Reigning Olympic gold medallist Lydia Lassila headlined a successful day for Australian aerial skiers in Val St Come, Canada, today by claiming her first World Cup win since the Australian Institute of Sport/Victorian Institute of Sport athlete returned to the sport 12 months.

Adding to the Australian's achievements was a third place by fellows AIS/VIS athlete David Morris, who had his first podium finish for the season, and with a career best result and her first super-final appearance, AIS/VIS skier Samantha Wells, who finished fourth.

Renee McElduff, also a AIS/VIS skier, capped of the day for the Aussies by jumping into her first final of the season, ending the day in eighth, meaning that every member of Australia’s aerial squad competing today advanced to the finals.

In combination, Australians occupied three of the eight positions in the women’s and men’s super-finals and two of the six podium places on offer.

Lassila finished ahead of two Chinese skiers, world number two Nina Li who picked up the silver medal, and world number one Xin Zhang, was third.

Lassila’s dominance in the event was apparent from the first of two finals.

After qualifying for F1 in fifth place, Lassila hit top form by breezing into the super-final by finishing 17.19 points ahead of Li, her nearest rival.

Again in the super-final Lassila delivered an assertive performance, earning the right to stand on the podium’s top step with a full, full,full – a triple twisting triple summersault – which attracted 100.84 points, 9.55 points better than Li.

It is the 12th time in Lassila’s glittering career that she has won a World Cup and in doing so she has pushed her ranking back to number three in the world.

Morris started the day by moving into the first final in 11th place after the qualification session but then started to apply the pressure with a fourth place and the right to jump in the medal round.

Morris seized the opportunity in his first super-final of the season with a lay double full, full – a twisting triple summersault – enabling him to reach the podium for the third time in his World Cup career.

Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport aerial skier David Morris qualified for a place in the top 12 finalists in the World Cup event in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium last night but a misjudged landing prevented him for making a bigger impression on the event.

In front of a large crowd in the stunning stadium that was used for ceremonies and track and field events in the 2008 summer Olympic Games, Morris was rewarded with 115.05 for a full double full full in his first qualification jump.

He followed up with a double full full full in his second qualification jump, which attracted 121.27 points and a place in the final 12.

Attempting a full double full full in the first final, a missed landing limited Morris’ score from the five judges to 83.19 points, leaving the Australian in 11th place overall, short of gaining a place in the next final.

Morris added 24 points to his season tally meaning that the AIS / VIS skier still comfortably retains a top 10 world ranking.

The World Cup was won by Canadian Travis Gerrits, with China’s Wu Chao and Zongyang Jia taking second and third places.

Twenty-four hours earlier, AIS / VIS athletes Lydia Lassila finished in second place while Danielle Scott and Laura Peel added to the squad’s success with a sixth and seventh place.

Morris will join his five female squad members in Deer Valley in the United States for the next stop on the World Cup tour on January 10.

Reigning Olympic aerial skiing champion Lydia Lassila believes she is now close to career best form following a World Cup second place in Beijing, China last night.

Lassila, competing in a transformed Bird’s Nest stadium, the centrepiece of the 2008 summer Olympic Games, spearheaded an impressive day for Australia’s women’s squad.

Three Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport athletes filled three of the top seven places, the squad’s best performance of the season.

Danielle Scott’s and Laura Peel’s sixth and seventh places added to the inspiring day for the Aussie team in front of about 27,000 spectators at the Bird’s Nest and a TV audience estimated to be more than 100 million people.

Both Scott and Peel added triple twisting double somersaults into their competition plans in Beijing. Sam Wells finished in 23rd place while Renee Mcelduff was 26th.

The event was won by Chinese athlete Zhang Xin, with her team mate Mengtao Xu taking the other podium place.

But for the Australians, the day belonged to the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games gold medallist who prevailed in a format that will mirror the way the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games will be staged.

After competing in just her seventh World Cup event since the Vancouver Games and the birth of her son, Lassila described the day, the third stop of this season’s tour, as “it’s brutal, it’s tough, it’s hard”.

Lassila and the other 21 athletes started jumping at about 3pm, with the super final between the day’s top four skiers, finishing at about 8.30pm.

Lassila executed 10 triples for the day, the highest number of triples she has executed in competition throughout her World Cup career which started in 2001.

Lassila said that until today, seven or eight triples were a demanding day.

“It was a long day with a lot of jumps. That’s what the Olympics are going to be and I’m really happy I made it through all of the rounds, made the distance, which was a concern for me. But I handled it really well,” she said.

Lassila said that her pre-event plan was to introduce a new trick, a full full full –three flips with three twists – if she qualified for the four woman super final. This is a jump she has not attempted in four years.

Although Lassila did not land the full full full cleanly, she said she was “really happy with the jump.”

“I was a little nervous about the new trick but I was super close on the landing,” she said.

“It was nicely controlled and the landing was right there, not that far away.

“That gave me a ton of confidence to take into the Christmas break.”

“Today was a great opportunity to experience the format."

Australian aerial skier David Morris opened the season with a fifth place in the Beida Lake World Cup in China today, to be the event’s highest finishing Aussie.

With a well-executed full double full full in the qualification round, the Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport athlete advanced to the final 12.

In the next round Morris elected to repeat the same jump from the qualification session, however, he was unable to advance any further, falling short by just a handful of points from making the event’s second final, which decides medal places among the top four athletes.

The event was won by won by China’s Liu Zhongqing, Anton Kushnir from Belarus was second and third place went to China’s Jia Zonbgyang.

In analysing his performance, Morris, who finished last season as the World number two, said that fifth place was a reasonable result at this stage of the season.
Morris said he experienced an indifferent preparation to this event.

“This was a fair spot for me to end in with the way that I jumped. It would have been nice to have a shot at the medals though,” he said.

“As it’s the start of the season, I’m still building the confidence. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do really well like last season but I now realise that I need to work at it and start from the start and do nice jumps.

“As long as my confidence is high, I don’t worry about the season. The results play out on their own. I just do the jumps that I do and the rest is up to the judges.”

Morris and the rest of the Australian squad have less than a week to prepare for the next round, which is being staged in Beijing’s famous Bird Nest arena, which was the centrepiece to the 2008 summer Olympic Games.

Fellow AIS / VIS scholarship holder Laura Peel was also pleased with her start to the season.

Peel used a full full jump in the qualification round, which saw her advance to the final eight, but her day ended in that round, leaving her in sixth place overall.

China’s Li Nina recorded a victory, followed by American Ashley Caldwell in second, while China Xu Sicun took the other podium place.

Peel was also satisfied with her performance and believes her results will improve as the season progresses.

“I was happy with my jumps. It’s the start of the season and I’m only getting going. I don’t want to peak too early,” Peel said.

Peel expects to introduce more difficult jumps to her repertoire after the Beijing event next weekend.

AIS / VIS athlete Danielle Scott used a more difficult jump than last season, a double full full, which earned her 11th place.

Scott was pleased with the outcome given that today was the first time she had used the jump in competition and has only performed it on four previous occasions.

The new jump is part of Scott’s strategy to implement more difficult jumps to give herself a better opportunity of elevating her ranking.

Reigning Olympic Champion Lydia Lassila had a day she wants to forget. She finished in 19th place, due to breaking a ski on landing, preventing her from earning enough points from the qualification round.

AIS / VIS athletes Samantha Wells and Renee McElduff finished 17th and 24th respectively.

Australian aerial skiers have opened their North Hemisphere season with three podium finishes at a Europa Cup event in Ruka, Finland.

Twenty-three-year old Australian Institute of Sport athlete Danielle Scott was Australia’s best performer by winning the title, ahead of Ukrainian Nadiya Didenko, with fellow AIS/VIS skier Laura Peel in third place.

Another AIS/VIS scholarship holder Samantha Wells was fourth.

World number two David Morris was also among the medals with a second place, behind Swiss Thomas Lambert and ahead of Christopher Lambert, also from Switzerland.

Fellow Aussies Renee McElduff finished in 13th, while Olympic gold medallist Lydia Lassila opted out of the event.

An additional Europa Cup event also took place the following day, with David Morris the only Australian in action. David narrowly missed the podium finishing in fourth place.

The squad will next compete in Beida Lake, China, their first World Cup competition for the season.

The AIS/VIS Aerial Skiing program has completed a number of successful water ramp training camps in Park City, UT, USA, and Mettmenstetten, Switzerland over the northern hemisphere summer.

A number of athletes qualified new jumps on the water, which are ready to be performed on snow.

All of the USA based athletes attended water ramp competitions over the summer period. Samantha Wells and David Morris went to the World Masters in Mettmenstetten, Switzerland, finishing third and ninth respectively. They continued to Quebec, Canada, and were joined by Danielle Scott, Laura Peel and Renee McElduff at Lac Beauport. Results in the women’s event were Scott third, Peel fifth, Wells eighth, McElduff ninth and David Morris fifth in the men’s event.

Reigning Olympic Champion, Lydia Lassila was based at the water jump in Mettmenstetten, Switzerland, for the northern hemisphere summer where she trained under the guidance of Swiss Head Coach, Michel Roth. Lydia had a productive camp and was able to progress to her full degree of difficulty.

An AIS/VIS Aerial Skiing water ramp/strength and conditioning camp is scheduled for October in Melbourne. Focus will be on basic singles, bungee and trampoline training which will take place at the Lilydale water jump facility. Danielle Scott, Renee McElduff, Laura Peel and Samantha Wells will attend this camp.

Australian aerial skier Laura Peel moved into third on the world rankings with the fourth podium finish of her career in the World Cup and test event of next year’s Sochi Winter Olympic Games in Russia tonight.

Peel won the silver medal and lifted her ranking from six in the world before this event.

Australia now has three places in the world’s top five rankings.

Peel sits one place below fellow Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport athlete Lydia Lassila, the current Olympic champion and world number two, with another AIS / VIS skier Danielle Scott, who finished in fifth place tonight, ranked at five.

The event was won by China’s Mengtao Xu with Switzerland’s Tanja Schaerer in third.

Peel said she was thrilled by the result and is now looking forward even more than before to the World Championship in Voss, Norway, early next month.

“We didn’t have great training,” Peel said. “It’s been tough all week.

“The conditions were tough, especially in qualification earlier. It was a little easier tonight.”

Peel said that she is now looking towards a strong finish to her northern hemisphere commitments after a delayed start to the season as a result of off-season surgery to her shoulder.

“I didn’t have as much training as I would have liked so I’m just now starting to get my tricks right.”

Scott can also be pleased with her performance of qualifying in fifth place but she was unable to keep the momentum going in the first final, finishing in 6th place.

Teammates Sam Wells qualified for the final and finished 9th while Renee McElduff finished 21st, after missing the cut.

Lassila decided not to compete tonight, due to back soreness from training yesterday.

In the men’s draw, AIS / VIS athlete and world number four David Morris started the night brilliantly by qualifying as the second top athlete with a score of 123.90, just 0.44 of a point short of top place.

But unfortunately for the Australian, he was unable to equal the standard in the first final, missing the super final and finishing in 8th overall.

Chinese athletes, Qi Guangpu and Lui Zhongqing took the first two places with Denis Osipau from Belarus in third place.

Snowbasin ski resort, the North American home of the OWIA and the Australian Aerial Skiing program “The Flying Kangaroos”, recently honoured the team with a special poster signing day at the Utah resort.

“The Flying Kangaroos” team took signed posters all afternoon for the skiers and boarders at the popular resort, with great interest in the team.

Snowbasin has supported the Aerial Skiing athletes at their home resort in North America since 2003.

The resort’s main gondola features cabins named after legendy Olympic medallists in skiing, and includes a dedicated gondola to “Fling Kangaroo” Olympic Champions Alisa Camplin and Lydia Lassila.

The training available at Snowbasin is very important in the development of World Class athletes and their skills in preparation for competition at World Cups, World Championships and ultimately the Olympic Winter Games.