Jacqui Cooper will make a decision by the end of April about extending her stellar career to the Vancouver 2010 Games. Cooper plans to discuss the issue with fiancé Mario Volpe, and also weigh up a host of other factors that are involved in the decision before committing to what would be almost a two year campaign.
Jacqui Cooper will make a decision by the end of April about extending her stellar career to the Vancouver 2010 Games.
Cooper plans to discuss the issue with fiancé Mario Volpe, and also weigh up a host of other factors that are involved in the decision before committing to what would be almost a two year campaign.
What is certain is that, without Vancouver as her goal, she will not continue on World Cup next season.
“The decision won’t be easy – if I could just go on and on and on I would,” Cooper said at the Flying Kangaroos welcome home media conference.
“Aerial skiing and World Cup – it’s the biggest part of who I am. I’ve had amazing experiences and to shut the door on all of that is going to be incredibly hard.”
“With aerial skiing, you can’t just strap the skis on and whack off a few triple twisting triples. When it’s over it’s over, that’s why I need some careful thought and consideration about what I want to do for the next couple of years.”
“I still think I could be better and could do more – there’s a lot of things to think about.”
“(Retiring without an Olympic medal) would be unfinished business, that’s for sure.”
“But at some point in my career I have to be really satisfied with what I’ve done, and I’ve done a lot and I’m very proud of the changes I have made over the last couple of years – I’ve got to work out if that’s enough or if I want more.”
Lydia Lassila has already made her major decision for next season, and that is a commitment to training and competing triple somersaults.
Lassila is very happy with the success of her return to competition from injury, and with making number two in the world for the fourth time in her five-year career.
“This was a year to get back on the snow and get back to my peak performance which I knew I could do because I have been doing it all summer.” Lassila said.
“I was jumping great all summer and it was just a matter of transferring that back to snow and having those great feelings again.”
“I think I really achieved that – I jumped great this winter, my quality was really there, and it was a really good building block for next year, moving back to triple somersaults.”
“That will be exciting, and is something I’m looking forward to.”
“I’ve got a really good twisting base, so my ability to twist in triple somersaults is there, so that’s something that not many women have been able to do. I’ve been able to bring triple twisting doubles and the twisting ability over to the triple, so that’s something that’s untapped, so I’m looking forward to trying it out and seeing how far I get.”
Liz Gardner, for her part, has her sights set on Vancouver 2010, but won’t be trying to match the number of years in the sport that Cooper has had.
“I haven’t achieved what I want to achieve yet,” Gardner said.
“So I’ll probably go on to 2010 and see what happens by then, and if not I’ll probably hang up my boots – there are too many other things I want to do.”