The 2008 northern hemisphere season has been one of the best in Australia’s winter sports history. While it is true that the total number of World Cup medals won by our athletes - 21 – fell short of the record of 23 set in 2003/04 and 2006/07, there were other reasons to be just as excited by the season as there were on those previous occasions. The highlights of the year, of course, were the record-breaking fifth World Cup aerial skiing title achieved by Jacqui Cooper and the record-equalling third consecutive mogul skiing title collected by Dale Begg-Smith.