FREESTYLE SKIING - HALFPIPE: Australian Amy Sheehan continued her purple patch of form with her second consecutive World Cup Ski Halfpipe podium finish in Breckenridge, USA.

After winning bronze at last week's World Cup event in Calgary, Canada, Sheehan made it two bronze medals in nine days- and she was the only female to appear on the podium twice.

The bronze medal finish (78.00 points) behind American Maddie Bowman (84.00) and Japan’s Ayana Onozuka (82.80) now puts the girl from Byron Bay into third on the overall World Cup standings.

Sheehan said was “pretty stoked” with her performance in tough conditions at Breckenridge.

“During last 12 months I have done everything possible to bring my run up to standard,” Sheehan said from the USA.

“I’ve done some water ramping, I did some training on the glaziers in the summer time, I did a lot of work in New Zealand.

“It was all work that was pretty positive and it is all coming together at the right time thankfully.”

This is the latest chapter in Sheehan’s transformation from an athlete who often placed mid-field into one of the highest ranking Ski Halfpipe athletes in the world.

Twelve months ago Sheehan was 15th in a World Cup in Sochi, the scene of next month’s Olympic Winter Games, and left Russia with a world ranking of 25.

From that point everything started to come together for the 27-year-old.

Her fiancé Chris Boghokian started coaching her and her climb up the rankings started to gather momentum.

“In the last six months he has worked his butt off to afford to travel with me,” Sheehan said of Boghokian.

“Having him here has definitely made all the difference. He is really good with strategy as he used to be an athlete himself.

“He actually used to build halfpipes so he knows a lot about the sport and he has really helped me a lot.”

Since Boghokian took over Sheehan was 14th in the World Championships in March; eighth in the first World Cup of this season, in Cardrona, New Zealand; 14th in Copper Mountain in December and third in Calgary, Canada, on January 3 before this latest podium in Breckenridge to finish the World Cup season.

Much of Sheehan’s success can be attributed to a smart strategy to deal with the challenging conditions.

Blanketed by heavy snow in the last 48 hours, the Breckenridge pipe was abnormally slow, prompting Sheehan to select tricks that would help her maintain speed through the pipe and ensure amplitude throughout her runs was as high as possible.

After being fourth in the qualification session several days ago, she captured a strong position on the leader’s board in her first run of the day, attracting a score of 78 points, five points shy of first place.

Sheehan described her run selection in the final as conservative: “I have a few more tricks up my sleeve,” she said with 25 days to Sochi.

“I knew today it was important to keep my amplitude as high as possible and just be consistent,” she said.

“I needed tricks that I could grab really easily and use tricks that the judges would be looking for. It worked in my favour.

“Today was conservative because we wanted to stay safe to ensure I make it to Sochi.”

Sheehan is the only athlete to have made the podium in Calgary and Breckenridge which highlights her blistering pre-Sochi form.

Sheehan’s friend and fellow ski halfpipe athlete Davina Williams was 20th giving her an end of World Cup season world ranking of 15 and now faces a nervous wait to see if she qualifies for Sochi.