Australian aerial skiers have swept the first four places at the iconic World Cup event in Deer Valley, USA, the first time Australia has filled the podium in any winter sport.
Leading the way was two-time world champion Laua Peel who claimed her third straight victory and 12th win of her impressive career, ahead of defending World Cup champion Danielle Scott in second, Abbey Willcox was third and Airleigh Frigo fourth.
Competing on the historic 2002 Olympic course, athletes encountered challenging weather throughout the week. Warm conditions led to the cancellation of two training days, and heavy snowfall on the event day forced the qualification round to be rescheduled to the night final session.
In difficult conditions, Laura reduced her degree of difficulty to double somersaults, scoring 87.88 points for her full-full double twisting double somersault jump and advancing to the top-six super final in first place. Abbey, Danielle and Airleigh also performed the same full-full jump, securing second, third, and fourth places with scores of 82.53, 79.38, and 78.12, respectively.
In the super-final, athletes were able to perform the same jump from the qualification round. All Australian athletes chose to compete with the full-full jump. Laura secured the win with a score of 87.57, followed closely by Danielle, in silver with 86.31. Abbey earned the bronze medal on 81.58, and Airleigh was fourth place on 69.30.
“Every World Cup podium I have had has been in Deer Valley, so it’s cool to continue that streak, and to share it with two other Aussies and make history with a clean sweep,” Abbey said, the 28-year-old from Brisbane.
“It’s incredible, I am so happy, Deer Valley really is a special place for me, it’s my second home, and to take out the sweep with Laura an Abbey and Airleigh in fourth, we are making history, it’s really cool for Australia,” Danielle said, the 34-year-old from NSW.
“I am really happy to have the yellow leads bib, we are halfway through the season now, and three back-to-back-wins is super exciting, and tonight was so special having an Aussie sweep of the podium and Airleigh as well in fourth place” Laura said, the 35-year-old from Canberra.
Missing out on finals were rookie Flying Kangaroos Sidney Stephens in 14th place, Elise Coleiro 15th and Reilly Flanagan 24th.
After four events, Laura has extended her position at the top of the World Cup standings with an impressive 310 points. Danielle has moved into second place with 224 points, while Abbey and Airleigh are in eighth and ninth places with 138 and 133 points, respectively.
The next World Cup aerial skiing event is in China on February 23 & 24 at Beidahu ski resort.
