Lydia Ierodiaconou is learning all about patience. Just 100 days out from the start of the Winter Olympics in Torino, Lydia is in no rush to test her injured knee on the ice.

She’s already qualified for the Australian Team and is under no pressure to perform in the upcoming World Cup events.

Instead she will continue gym work to strengthen her injured knee in her Melbourne gym.

“I’ll spend a couple more weeks getting stronger here in the gym before I go away and test it on snow” she said. “I’m taking it very slowly”.

The 23 year old aerial skier underwent an ACL allograft to her left knee in late June. She travelled to Utah in September to test her knee on the water jump.

“I jumped like I’d never really left and that was a really good feeling”.

Now she is aiming to do just one or two events before the Games. Deer Valley in the second week of January followed by an event in Lake Placid.

”Otherwise I’ll just train and take my time” she said.

She will miss a couple of events in China before Xmas. “The World Cup is not a priority for me; it is all about the Olympics”.

The aerial team then has a special training camp leading into the start of competition in Torino.

Her parents Phyllis and Andy will travel from Melbourne to watch their daughter compete in Italy.

Three Australian women have qualified for the aerials in Torino. The defending Olympic champion, Alisa Camplin and the former world champion Jacqui Cooper.

All three are recovering from injury. Alisa has undergone the same operation as Lydia and Jacqui has undergone a shoulder reconstruction. She also underwent a knee reconstruction after suffering a serious injury just prior to the start of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake.

AOC