Australian skier, Laura Peel, has finished in second place in the World Cup aerials event in Deer Valley, USA..

Her fellow Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder, Danielle Scott, finished in career best fourth place after making it all the way to the final round of four competitors.

In a mixed event for the Australians, 2010 Olympic champion Lydia Lassila had a tough day to place eighth. Sam Wells made it through to her first final 12 of the season but could go no further, finishing 12th.

In the men’s competition, David Morris finished 15th in his opening jump in the qualifying round missing finals.

The second placing was Peel’s first podium finish for the season.

She tried a new routine for her final jump – a full, double full (triple twisting double somersault) - but did not square up quickly enough on landing and lost valuable points.

Peel said after the event: “I was really pleased to land some clean jumps and do Full double Full in competition. It is only the fourth I have performed on snow, so to be second tonight, I am really happy.”

“It was great to have four of us (Australians) in the final 12 and even better to have both Dani and I in the last four.”

"I'm looking forward to the next round in Sochi on the 2014 Olympic site."

The season’s dominant aerialist, China’s Mengtao Xu, recorded her fourth win from five starts this season.

Aerial skiing Olympic Champion Lydia Lassila’s much-anticipated comeback continued impressively at Lake Placid in the United States today when she pocketed her third World Cup podium finish from four starts.

The Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of sport athlete ended night two of the Lake Placid double-header in the silver medal position, adding to second places in China and Canada in the opening two events of the season.

Fellow AIS / VIS scholarship holder David Morris, who captured a career-first podium finish yesterday, also continued his successful season.

Morris backed up his third place yesterday by qualifying for his third super final in the four rounds of World Cup so far.

Morris leaves Lake Placid with a third and a fourth added to his record, clearly the best two days of his career.

As well as picking up her 32nd World Cup podium, Lassila can be pleased with several important steps forward in her quest for a tilt at another medal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

This weekend saw Lassila jump triple somersaults in competition for the first time since the Olympic final in 2010.

Chinese athlete, Yu Yang, won today’s event, with compatriot Mengtao Xu third.

Fellow AIS / VIS skier Laura Peel is getting back to her best after a delayed pre-season start.

The 23-year-old Mount Buller-based skier finished Lake Placid in sixth and was today’s top qualifier.

AIS / VIS scholarship holder and world number five Dani Scott was ninth and was the third Australian woman to finish in today’s top 10.

The other two members of the AIS / VIS aerial squad, Renee McElduff and Samantha Wells, came 12th and 17th respectively, after very good jumps in the qualification round.

Lassila said she believes her return to competition is on track and living up to her expectations.

“Today I felt I had more fun. It’s been a while but it is coming back,” Lassila said.

“I’m very happy with how things are progressing and we could not have asked for more.

“We wanted to do the first couple of events with doubles and they were successful, then we added triples, which is what we did this week.

“It’s a really good start. The jumps are nice. I just need to get the landings a little more consistent.”

Lassila’s landing in the super final was the difference between winning and second today, with Yu Yang being the only competitor in the four woman super final to successfully complete her landing in the blustering conditions.

“It was strange because the conditions changed a lot for the final,” Lassila said.

“We were taking steps up on the in-run down. We were all over the place but we got the speeds right.

“Also through the course of the day, and I wasn’t ready for this, the landing hill was super soft and I just sank in. I couldn’t save it.

“Three girls crashed in the final as a result. We didn’t expect the landing hill to get that soft from one jump to another.”

Morris said he was really “happy and disappointed at the same time” with his fourth place and the fact that he missed his second podium in as many days by the small margin of 1.57 points.

“Today I probably set my expectation of myself a little higher than yesterday,” Morris said.

Comeback skier David Morris delivered the best performance of his career to become the first Australian men’s aerial skier to win a World Cup medal in almost 15 years at Lake Placid, in the United States.

The 28-year-old Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport athlete, who came close to walking away from aerial skiing 12 months ago, achieved a life-long dream of becoming the first Aussie male to reach a World Cup podium since Jono Sweet finished third at Whistler-Blackcomb, Canada, one week short of 15 years ago.

Morris’ third place elevates his world ranking to number three and comes just six days after he achieved a then World Cup career best result of fourth at Val Saint Come, Canada.

Today’s World Cup third round saw Chinese athletes fill the first two places with Zongyang Jia and Guangpu Qi taking out first and second. Morris’ bronze medal denied the Chinese team a 1-2-3 finish.

While all eyes were on the Australian women, particularly current Olympic gold medallist Lydia Lassila, Morris stole the limelight.

Three Australian women qualified for the round of 12, however, none scored high enough to progress to the super-final for the top four athletes.

The best of the Australian women was 22-year-old AIS / VIS scholarship holder Dani Scott, who finished with a career equaling best fifth place after topping the leaders’ board in qualifying.

Fellow AIS / VIS athletes Lydia Lassila and Laura Peel finished 11th and 12th respectively, after both missing their landings in the round of 12.

Morris described the result as the “best day of his life.”

“I didn’t dream that I would ever be standing on a World Cup podium,” an elated Morris said soon after the completion of the night event.

“I did a quad triple triple (in the round of 12) and it was massive and I pinned the landing. I was celebrating that one because I had redeemed myself on the spot.

“When we looked at who was in the super final, we realised there were three Chinese guys. The only jump I had left was the full, full, full, which would have given me a fourth against those guys.

“So at that point I decided to do my first double full, full, full for the season.”

“When I landed it, I felt like hugging everyone, which is what I probably did by the end of the day.”

Ironically, Sweet, the last Australian male aerial skier to stand on a World Cup podium, was Morris’ first coach and the person who enticed him into the sport.

Morris admitted that 12 months ago he came close to quitting the sport that has been the centre of his life for so long.

He said that watching aerial events on TV prompted him to strap the skis on again this season.

“When I saw some of the results, I thought that could be me so I decided then to compete again.”

Morris has no time for celebrations as the next World Cup aerial competition will be held at Lake Placid in 24 hours.

Australia’s six member aerial skiing squad were all smiles after their World Cup performances at Val Saint Come, Canada, today when Olympic Champion Lydia Lassila made it two podiums from as many starts and AIS/ VIS team mate Laura Peel qualified for her first super-final of the season.

To add more gloss to the day, Australian aerial skiers dominated the top five places with Dani Scott achieving a personal best fifth place and narrowly missing the super final.

The results in Quebec were part of Australia’s best 24 hours in World Cup history, highlighted by two wins and three other podium finishes across three skiing and snowboarding disciplines.

Lassila described her result as “brilliant” despite the fact that she was “out jumped” by China’s Mengtao Xu.

The Australian hastens to add that she is yet to reintroduce triple somersaults into her competition regime, electing so far to stick to multiple twisting double somersaults with high executions, at this phase of her comeback.

However, she plans to reinstate triples when she competes at Lake Placid, USA, on January 20.

“Our plan is to do the triples this week which is exciting,” she said.

“I’m hoping they will go well although I’m not sure what to expect in terms of results and lasting a whole competition doing them.

“I’ve taken it one step at a time but we’re ready now.

“I have performed really well and consistently in the two events, executed the tricks exactly how I wanted so I’m pleased with that as a platform and now I can keep building.”

Peel, who finished last year with a ranking of four in the world, recaptured close to her best form with an excellent fourth place today executing both double somersaults almost perfectly.

Fifth place Scott, again had very high points on her full full, and has moved to third on the World Cup rankings behind Lassila and series leader Mengtao, while Peel has climbed up into sixth.

Renee McElduff also qualified for finals competition in 12th with a well executed lay full and Samantha Wells narrowly missed her full full landing ending up in 14th place.

The revelation of the World Cup second round in Quebec was the fourth placed 28-year-old David Morris, who had a World Cup career best of 6th going into the event.

With a podium finish well within sight after the early rounds, Morris made it through to the four man super-final with eventual winner Dmitri Dashinski from Belarus, Canadian Travis Gerrits and China’s Hang Zhou.

Performing a full-full-full, a jump he has completed almost perfectly at least 10 times in the last week, the Australian failed to hit his landing, forcing Morris forward into the snow.

The landing mishap, after the rest of the trick went perfectly, cost him a chance to stand on a World Cup podium for the first time in his career.

Australia’s current Olympic gold medallist Lydia Lassila made a strong return to the elite level of aerial skiing in Changchun, China, today when she finished second in her first World Cup competition in almost three years.

However, despite her impressive return, Lassila, who became a mother for the first time in 2011, will not yet allow herself to start thinking about the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

The Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport athlete said she would have been disappointed had she not recorded her 30th World Cup podium finish today.

“I wanted to be on the podium and that’s what I thought I could do,” Lassila said.

“It’s too early to start thinking of another Olympic medal. Obviously that is what I dream of, and that is why I’m here, but there is a lot of building to do.”

Finishing second to China’s Mengtao Xu and ahead of Nina Li, also from China, clearly signaled to the skiing world that Lassila is back with the same desire that propelled her to Olympic glory in February 2010.

Right from the start of the first World Cup aerial event of the season, Lassila made it clear that her intentions would not revolve around “easing” her way back into competition.

She finished fourth in qualifying with a full-full scoring 89 points and then increased the degree of difficulty in the first final with a double full-full, earning 94 points and a place in the super-final contested by the day’s best four athletes.

Competing for the first time in the new two finals format, Lassila maintained her degree of difficulty in the final round with a full-double-full, a double somersault with three twists, but with a double twist on the second flip, picking up 97 points in the minus 18 degree conditions to snare second place.

Lassila said that she was thrilled by the result but at the same time, she expects that sort of result of herself.

“I knew that if I could get to the final four, I’d have a pretty good chance of being on the podium.

“That was the first time I have competed with that format so I didn’t know what to expect other than expecting it to be a long day.

“As it turned out, the format was less of the big deal than what I thought it would be and that was surprising.

“The girl that won did triples, so there was nothing I could do about that at this stage.

“Today gives me a lot more confidence for when I start to do triples again.”

The Australian Institute of Sport aerial skiing program has wrapped up their training camp in Ruka, Finland, with a Europa Cup event.

The event was an ideal warm up for the opening World Cup of the season on January 5 in Changchun, China, with a number of positive early season performances by the AIS athletes.

The highlight was AIS/VIS scholarship holder Lydia Lassila winning her first event back since the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games and becoming a mother. Although Lydia won with a low degree of difficulty by her standards (lay-full and full-full), the win shows she is on track in the defence of her Olympic title.

Also competing after taking a break last season, David Morris, had a successful event winning two medals, a second on day one and a bronze medal on day two.

Samantha Wells, Danielle Scott and Renee McElduff competed in the day two event, finishing in fourth, fifth and ninth place respectively.

VIS athlete Alice Cheung made her competition debut finishing in 11th place on day one.

Renee McElduff had a solid showing in a Nor-Am competition at the Utah Olympic Park, finishing third, the second Nor-Am medal of her career.

On her first jump, a lay-tuck double somersault, Renee scored 65.91 points and with her back layout somersault, she scored the highest out of any performed on the day with 59.86 points.

Her efforts awarded her a total score of 125.77 with less than half a point separating second and third position. USA athletes Kiley McKinnon and Madison Olsen finished in first and second place.

Aerial skier Laura Peel narrowly missed capturing her second World Cup medal within three weeks when she fought out a nail-biting final in Deer Valley, USA.

The 22-year-old Mt Buller skier finished the high quality final in fourth place, just behind world number four Fanyu Kong from China in third spot, but one place higher than Ukrainian Olga Volkova, who is currently ranked third in the World and the reigning World Championship bronze medalist.

China’s Mengtao Xu was victorious, her countrywoman Cheng Shuang was second.

Fourth place earned the Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder another 50 World Cup points, moving her up two places to sixth in the world, just seven points away from fifth.

All four members of Australia’s women’s aerial team qualified for the finals – Samantha Wells backed up her fifth in Calgary five days ago with a ninth today, Renee McElduff placed 11th and Danielle Scott finished 12th.

But clearly top honours among the Australians went to Peel, who made her presence in the night event felt right from the start.

She grabbed the sixth highest score in qualifying, then a very impressive win in the round of twelve with a high scoring Full Full at 91 points, followed by an almost perfect Lay Full at 86 points in the round of eight, which led to her appearance in the super-final, a one jump shoot-out between the top four athletes on the day.

“It was a big surprise getting into the top four,” Peel admitted.

“In making two top-four finals this year, I have now achieved my goal for the season, but I just want to keep going.”

Peel added that she is thrilled to have achieved a third, fourth and fifth place in the five World Cup events held so far this season.

“Last year I was just sneaking into some of the finals but this year it is nice to be up the top,” Peel said.

Today’s Deer Valley World Cup event is the half way stage of the season. Coaching staff have decided that their young and developing athletes will be rested for a week, missing the next round in China on February 11, but will reload when the series moves to Europe for the seventh round in Kreischberg, Austria.

Australian aerial skier Samantha Wells showed great maturity as a competitor despite competing in just her fourth World Cup event today.

The 22-year-old AIS/VIS scholarship holder claimed the best finish of her developing career by ending the day in fifth position, behind the three medalists from last year’s World Championships.

The event was won by China’s Mengtao Xu, with compatriot Shuang Cheng and Ukrainian Olga Volkova in second and third places.

Wells led an Aussie charge of four athletes, including Danielle Scott, Renee McElduff and Laura Peel, to reach the final.

Yet while Scott, McElduff and Peel all performed admirably, the day’s honours belonged to Wells.

She ended the qualifying session in ninth place after a lay tuck earned her 71.76 points.

She ramped up the difficulty of her jump in the final, using a lay full which impressed the judges and scoring 79.89 points to elevate her four places above her qualifying position.

Needless to say that today was Wells’ best performance and the Mt Buller skier was thrilled by her result.

“This is very much a year of gaining experience for me and to finish fifth today was a big surprise for me,” Wells said.

“My goals this year are to make finals and land nice jumps, so to come fifth today is unbelievable.”

Wells' team-mates final placing's in the Calgary final were Scott in 9th who was close to a perfect score on her Lay Tuck with 75.66 points, McElduff in 11th after landing both jumps and Peel finished in 12th after qualifying strongly in 5th place but missed the landing of her higher degree of difficulty Full Full in the final.

The AIS/VIS program now head to Deer Valley, UT, USA, site of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games to compete in the final North American World Cup of the season.

The first FIS Freestyle World Cup event of the New Year takes place this weekend in Mont Gabriel, Canada.

For the AIS/VIS Aerial team the event marks their first World Cup of the season.

After a solid training camp in Apex, BC, Canada prior to Christmas, the AIS/VIS Aerial Skiing team have just returned from their Christmas-New Year break to resume training in Val Saint Come, a relatively new site in Quebec, Canada.

The lack of snow across the Northern Hemisphere to date this season has meant a couple of last minute destination changes, but has not compromised the quality of training.

The girls have been given the opportunity to jump with different teams this preparation, including the Canadian and Ukrainian National teams.

AIS Aerial Skiing Head Coach, Cord Spero, will be assisted by former Canadian World Champion Steve Omischl during the upcoming North American leg of the World Cup tour.

All girls are jumping well off the double kicker, and are prepared leading into the first World Cup of the season.

This event will mark the World Cup debut of AIS/VIS Scholarship holders Samantha Wells, Danielle Scott and Renee McElduff. Laura Peel completes the four-member squad, and will be commencing her second World Cup season.

AIS/NSWIS Mogul Skiing athletes competing include Britt Cox, Matt Graham and Nicole Parks who will compete in her first World Cup of the season.

Australian aerial skier Laura Peel produced another strong performance to finish 5th in today’s 3rd round of the World Cup at Lake Placid in the United States, building on her 3rd place last week.

The Mt Buller skier finished just 0.84 points behind the current World Cup equal leader, Ukrainian Olga Volkova, and 1.02 points behind the reigning World Champion, Shuang Cheng from China in the round before the super-final.

Having qualified in 9th place, Peel improved in the next round to finish in 5th place overall and joined teammate Danielle Scott in the overall top 10 placings, which provided a successful day for the Australian team.

Peel's double twisting double somersault scored the Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder an outstanding 88.51 points, but she could not quite match the top four.

For the second event in a row, all podium positions were occupied by Chinese athletes, with first place going to Mengtao XU, who was comfortably ahead of Shuang and Fanyu Kong in third. Today’s three place-getters finished in exactly the same order as yesterday’s second round competition.

Peel said she was pleased that she was able to deliver another top score today, which she rates as being on a par with the jump that took her to third place in the World Cup opening event in Mont Gabriel, Canada, on January 15.

“I would say Mount Gabriel and today are the best I have ever jumped,” Peel said.

“Everybody can always improve a little but the way I jumped today was everything I had but maybe I can eventually do jumps with more difficulty.

“I am really confident with the jumps I have now and it’s nice to know that I am not too far behind the Chinese.”

Scott backed up her finals berth from yesterday with another top 12 performance in qualifying, which elevated her to the next round in today's competition.

Competing in her debut World Cup season, Scott finished the day in 9th overall, ahead of more experienced athletes from Russia, Belarus and the United States.

After today’s solid performances, Peel and Scott are placed in the World Cup’s top 10 standings, in 6th and 10th respectively.

The other two members of the aerials team, Renee McElduff finished one place out of the final, in 13th overall, while Samantha Wells placed 16th after making the final of yesterday’s first stage of the double-header in Lake Placid. McElduff and Wells are also in their first year of World Cup competition.

After the physical demands of two competitions in as many days, the team has two days of recovery before traveling to Calgary, Canada, to compete in the fourth round on January 29.

The AIS/VIS Aerial Skiing Program has landed in Apex, Canada! After briefly passing through snow-deprived Ruka in Finland, the decision was made to travel to Apex to join the Canadian Team who had their site up and running.

After hopping continents, the team has finally settled in and commenced a successful training camp under the guidance of AIS Aerial Skiing Head Coach Cord Spero. The training conditions have been ideal. The jump site has plenty of snow and the weather has been great, allowing for solid early season training. Laura Peel and Samantha Wells are now comfortably off the double. Danielle Scott has returned swiftly from her knee injury and Renee McElduff is looking to launch her first doubles on snow.

The girls are looking forward to a visit from Barbara Meyer (team Sport Psychologist) next week to assist in the preparations for NorAm and World Cup performances scheduled to begin in North America after Christmas.

Meanwhile, Olympic Gold medallist Lydia Lassila is returning to training aerials this season after taking time out last year to start a family. She will commence jumping over the coming days with 7-month old son Kai there to cheer her on!

Article written by AIS Aerial Skiing athlete - Danielle Scott

The AIS/VIS Aerial Skiing Program is back home and freshly focused on final preparations for the coming winter season. AIS/VIS Aerial Skiing Head Coach Cord Spero aimed high this summer pushing the team to keep up with a jam-packed summer training schedule. The team tackled the challenge head on and with valued assistance from support staff, have come out ready and rearing to go.

It was a momentous season for the team training at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City, Utah, USA, with Renee McElduff performing her first doubles and Danielle Scott making a solid return to the ramps after a knee reconstruction earlier in the year. David Morris bagged his first Lay-Double full- Double full and Samantha Wells her first double twisting doubles. Rookie jumpers Yves Berryman and Tayla Dinuccio from the VIS Aerial Skiing program tested the ranks with gusto performing their first singles on water this season and Laura Peel performed her first triple twisting doubles to make her mark finishing second in the FIS Water Ramp competition.

The AIS/VIS Aerial Skiing team is excited to have welcomed a new sponsor this season- Zimmer- world leaders in orthopedics. Be sure to keep your eye out for their patch appearing on the Aerial uniforms and check out their Australian website at www.zimmer.com.au

It was a slightly bitter sweet ending to the summer season this year with the team bidding farewell to the familiar overseas training facility and friends in Utah, USA, with great excitement and anticipation for both the coming winter season and the opportunity to train on home soil at the Australian water ramp facility, currently under construction in Queensland! There is no doubt that the future is looking bright as ever for the AIS/VIS Aerial Skiing Program.

Article written by AIS Aerial Skiing athlete - Samantha Wells

The AIS Aerial Skiing program has been training in Ruka, Finland, for the past three weeks under the coaching of Cord Spero and Liz Gardner. As we approach the winter solstice, the days are getting shorter, with only 3 hours of light per day. The conditions have been clear and cold with little wind, making it a very consistent training venue.

It has been a productive camp so far for AIS athletes David Morris, Laura Peel, Danielle Scott, Samantha Wells, Jessica McIlwraith and VIS development athlete Renee McElduff. It is the first time Renee has jumped on snow. Over the weekend, Ski Sport Finland hosted a double Europa Cup event in Ruka. The competition was against a field including athletes from Great Britain, Belarus, Switzerland, Russia and the Ukraine.

Anton Kushnir of Belarus won both men's events, with David Morris placed fifth and seventh on respective days. Dave has recently started training triples on-snow again in the lead up to the opening World Cup events of this season, being held in Beida Lake, China, on December 17 and 18.

This event actually marked the first competition experience for Laura, Samantha and Renee in aerials. Samantha finished highest ranked of the girls in fourth position on Day 1, while Danielle was ranked highest in fifth position on Day 2.

Day 1 - December 4

Men
5 - MORRIS, David - 187.41 points

Women
4 - WELLS, Samantha - 115.85
6 - PEEL, Laura - 113.21
7 - MCILWRAITH, Jessica - 112.38
9 - SCOTT, Danielle - 109.97
13 - McELDUFF, Renee - 100.80

Day 2 - December 5

Men
7 - MORRIS, David - 170.63

Women
5 - SCOTT, Danielle - 120.53
8 - WELLS, Samantha - 112.78
10 - MCILWRAITH, Jessica - 110.61
12 - PEEL, Laura - 101.05
13 - McELDUFF, Renee - 80.60

The female athletes will remain in Finland until December 20 and then head over to train and compete in North America.