Picture
Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • Aerials
    • Aerial Skiing About
    • Aerial Skiing News
    • Airleigh Frigo
    • Laura Peel
    • Danielle Scott
    • Abbey Willcox
  • ALPINE
    • Alpine About
    • Alpine News
    • Madison Hoffman
    • Harry Laidlaw
    • Louis Muhlen-Schulte
    • Greta Small
  • Moguls
    • Moguls Skiing About
    • Mogul Skiing News
    • Jakara Anthony
    • Matt Graham
    • Jackson Harvey
    • Cooper Woods
  • Park & Pipe
    • Park & Pipe About
    • Park & Pipe News
    • Tess Coady
    • Scotty James
    • Valentino Guseli
    • Daisy Thomas
  • Snowboard Cross
    • Snowboard Cross About
    • Snowboard Cross News
    • Josie Baff
    • Cameron Bolton
    • Belle Brockhoff
    • Mia Clift
    • Jarryd Hughes
    • Adam Lambert
  • Individual Athletes
    • Individual Athletes About
    • Individual Athletes News
    • Bree Walker
    • Kiara Reddingius
    • Alex Ferlazzo
    • Tahli Gill
    • Dean Hewitt
    • Hektor Giotopoulos Moore
    • Anastasiia Golubeva
    • Holly Harris
    • Jason Chan
    • Brendan Corey
    • Rosie Fordham
    • Hugo Hinckfuss
    • Ellen Søhol Lie
    • Lars Young Vik
  • About
    • OWIA News
    • Sport Integrity
    • Media
    • OWIA About
    • OWIA History
    • Executive & Staff
    • OWIA Policies & Documents
    • OWIA Calendar
    • Sponsors & Partners
    • Australian Sports Foundation
    • Newsletter
    • Privacy
    • National Redress Scheme
    • Medical
    • Contact

Cooper bows out after record career

26/11/2010

 
Australia's greatest World Cup skier, Jacqui Cooper, has announced her retirement from aerial skiing after nearly two decades at the top of her sport.

Cooper, 37, is the most celebrated aerial skier ever, often overcoming major setbacks to set new benchmarks on her way to a record number of wins.

Her lists of credits are impressive, and her longevity in a sport, thought to favour the young, has been extraordinary.

Cooper was the first Australian female skier to win medals at three World Championships, adding a bronze in Inawashiro in 2009 to the bronze she had won two years earlier in Madonna di Campiglio and the gold ten years earlier in Meiringen.

The Mt Buller skier also won the World Cup aerials title five times, more than any other aerial skier, man or woman; only one other freestyler, American moguls champion Donna Weinbrecht, has achieved the extraordinary feat.

Cooper competed in 139 World Cup events during her career that spanned from 1991 to 2010. She finished on the podium on 40 occasions, including 24 victories, seven ahead of the next most prolific winner in the history of the sport, Canadian Marie-Claud Asselin and fellow Australian Kirstie Marshall.

Taking her sport to new heights, Cooper set a number of world records with the triple twisting triple somersaults that became her trademark.

Cooper attended five Olympic Games - Lillehammer in 1994, Nagano in 1998, Salt Lake City in 2002, Torino in 2006 and Vancouver in February this year.

Fortune never favoured her at the Olympics, her best result a fifth in her final appearance in Vancouver when she once again beat the odds to make the final after an injury-riddled preparation.

Eight years earlier, Cooper went to the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics as the hot favourite to take gold after winning the World Cup title for three consecutive years. But a training accident on the competition hill in the lead-up to her event put her out of the Games with a knee injury.

Her spirit, however, was ever resilient.

It was Cooper's ability to rebound from adversity leading up to this year's Vancouver Games that she rates as her career highlight.

"I had a major hip injury just seven months before Vancouver," Cooper said. "My hip was so bad that I had to learn to walk again, so to be able to compete in Vancouver was an achievement that I was very proud of," Cooper said.

"People came up to me after I finished in fifth place and said how sorry they felt for me, but I was not disappointed at all. Vancouver was my greatest achievement, although it was not my greatest result.

"While the World Championship titles were special to me, I have never measured my career by medals won. My goal has always been to take aerial skiing into a new world."

As the first woman to perform a triple twisting, triple summersault, Cooper will retire with her trailblazing mission accomplished.

Australian Olympic Committee President, John Coates, believes the five-time Olympic team member is a great role model for all Australian athletes.

Comments are closed.

    ATHLETES

    All
    Abbey Willcox
    Airleigh Frigo
    Alisa Camplin
    Britt George
    Danielle Scott
    David Morris
    Elise Coleiro
    Gabi Ash
    Gabrielle Ash
    Harrison Tulberg
    Jacqui Cooper
    Kirstie Marshall
    Laura Peel
    Lydia Lassila
    Miriana Perkins
    Reilly Flanagan
    Renee McElduff
    Samantha Wells
    Sidney Stephens
    Wesley Naylor

    AERIAL SKIING  ARCHIVES

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010

    RSS Feed

Picture
OLYMPIC WINTER INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA
​

CONTACT
​
O'Brien Icehouse
Level 2
105 Pearl River Road
Docklands, VIC 3008
Australia

P
hone: +61 3 9686 2977

ABOUT                 
OWIA History
Executive & Staff
Policies & Documents 
Sponsors & Partners
OWIA Calendar

Australian Sports Foundation
North American Medical
Media Center


SPORT INTEGRITY
​
​SITE MAP

AERIAL SKIING
News
ALPINE SKIING
News
​
MOGUL SKIING
News
PARK & PIPE
News
SNOWBOARD CROSS
News

INDIVIDUAL ATHLETES
News


Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

​Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy  |  2024 © Olympic Winter Institute of Australia  All rights reserved