Laura Peel

Fast Facts

Sport: Freestyle Skiing
Event: Aerials
Olympic History: Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, Beijing 2022
Highlights: 2x World Championships gold, gold at 2022 Deer Valley World Cup, Beijing 2022 Opening Ceremony Flag Bearer
Coach: Michel Roth
Year Born: 1989
State Born: ACT

About Laura

Canberra-born Laura Peel, a gymnast-turned-skier, was earmarked for aerials by Olympic great Jacqui Cooper in 2007. Within four years she was on the World Cup circuit, soon making the final at her first World Championships in Deer Valley and claiming a maiden World Cup victory the next season. 

A runner-up at the Sochi test event in 2013, she debuted at the Olympic Winter Games in 2014 and finished seventh in the final.

Her rise accelerated with a breakthrough world title in 2015 at Kreischberg, Austria. After a season on the sidelines, she returned to the World Cup podium in 2017 and finished fifth at PyeongChang 2018 as Australia’s best performer in the women’s aerials final.  

Peel’s next two northern winters defined her as one of the sport’s standard-bearers. Introducing triple back somersaults into competition, she won the 2019–20 World Cup title and defended it in 2020–21, adding a second world crown in Almaty to become Australia’s first two-time world champion in aerial skiing.  

On the eve of Beijing 2022 she produced a jump for the ages at Deer Valley, winning with 118.05 points for a triple back somersault with three twists, among the highest scores ever recorded in women’s aerials. A day earlier, she became just the third woman to land a quadruple-twisting triple in training. She then had the honour of leading the Australian Team into the Opening Ceremony as joint Flag Bearer alongside figure skater Brendan Kerry.  

In Beijing, Peel topped qualifying with a 104.54 but, in blustery night conditions, finished fifth in the super final, a result that spoke to the fine margins of a single-jump medal round. 

Peel rebounded in 2023, winning the World Cup finale in Almaty and placing second overall for the season; at the World Championships in Bakuriani she missed the super final in seventh as teammate Danielle Scott won silver. 

After sitting out most of the 2023–24 World Cup, Peel returned in 2024-25 with trademark ambition and execution. She led Australia to bronze in the mixed team event at Lake Placid. Australia’s first World Cup team aerials medal since 2017, highlighted by a 118.48 score on her triple back somersault with three twists. She then won back-to-back individual events at Lac‑Beauport, spearheaded a historic Australian 1‑2‑3 (and fourth in fourth) sweep at Deer Valley, and closed the season with victory on the 2026 Olympic course in Livigno to clinch her third career Crystal Globe as the World Cup’s number one ranked aerialist. 

At the 2025 World Championships in St Moritz, Peel qualified for the final but narrowly missed the six‑woman super final in seventh, while Australia’s women claimed bronze through Scott; in the mixed team event Australia placed fourth. The season as a whole underlined Peel’s status among the world’s premier triple‑jumpers and positioned her strongly for the lead‑in to Milano‑Cortina 2026.