On the morning of her medal presentation, Australia’s newest Olympic gold medallist Lydia Lassila was still buzzing over her win and hoping her medal will translate into more winter sport facilities for Australian athletes.

At a press conference held for the 28-year-old aerial skier, her recent win was still sinking in.
“I was pinching myself this morning, the girls were pinching me too going, ‘Are you still there Lyd, are you still here’. Yep, feeling good,” she said with her beaming smile.

Lassila thanked a full cast during the conference including the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia, the Australian Olympic Committee, her teammates and her coach Michel Roth.

Roth, who also trains the Swiss team, has a knack of producing champions, which Lassila attributes to his personal touch with his athletes.

“He always treats everyone equally and I felt like I was the only one on the team and that’s how he makes everyone feel. He caters to everyone’s individual needs and knows everyone is different and that’s what makes him the truly amazing coach he is”.

Apart from the support of her team coach, Lydia also made a special mention of her husband, Lauri Lassila from Finland. By luck, he is also a coach at the Games and the Australian and Finland quarters were housed in the same building within the Athletes’ Village.

“He’s been there every step of the way, and supported me and been my best friend all the way too,” Lassila said. As a former world competitor himself, who made the world cup podium, she cited his advice as being invaluable.

Future looks bright for Australia

The gold in aerials boosted Australia up the medals tally to 13th after 13 days of competition, sitting behind France and above the Czech Republic. The two gold (Lassila and Torah Bright) and silver (Dale Begg-Smith) puts Australia well ahead of traditionally winter sports dominated countries such as Finland (at position 24).

According to Lassila, we are beginning to make a name for ourselves in winter sports.

“We’re taking it seriously now, and three medals for the Australian team at a winter Olympics, well a lot of people are baffled by that, but I think there is potential for more. Why not? Go and get it.”

Chef de Mission, Ian Chesterman said that there is an exciting batch of youth being developed in the sports, highlighting ski cross, boarder cross and short track as relevant sports to the Australian psyche and worthy of development..

 “We need depth to come through and hopefully we will have that (by Sochi 2014). We are pretty pleased to be sitting on three medals; I think it’s an extraordinary achievement.”

The increasing profile of winter sports is excellent for athletes, such as the aerialists, who have to train overseas in North America and Switzerland. Our chances of medalling at Olympics would greatly increased if our teams could train on home soil according to Lassila.
 
“With a (water jump) facility at home we could recruit younger athletes and have them just pouring into a facility and training all year round. We would just be unstoppable.”

The Ice House which has recently opened at Docklands in Melbourne now provides a world class facility for short track and figure skating athletes.

The gold medal for aerials will be presented at the medal Plaza in BC Place tonight.

Flip Byrnes
AOC - Vancouver