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Lassila soars best to deny Chinese
Source: Agencies |
February 26, 2010, Friday
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LYDIA Lassila of Australia won the Olympic gold medal in women's aerials on Wednesday for her country's second title of the Vancouver Winter Games.
The 27-year-old Melbourne native, who shredded her knee during qualifying at the 2006 Turin Games, enjoyed a much better time on West Vancouver's Cypress Mountain, nailing a pair of jumps to not only prevent a Chinese sweep, but knock the world's up-and-coming aerials power off the top of the podium.
Lassila looked like she was stepping out of bed, not flying through the air, when she landed her second jump to give herself a total of 214.74 points, a 7.5-point margin over Li Nina, who won her second straight Olympic silver. Chinese teammate Guo Xinxin took bronze.
"After Torino, I knew that I didn't want to give up," Lassila said. "I knew there was more left in me, and at that point I didn't think I was done with this sport. I knew I could jump like this. I wanted to achieve that; it was self-satisfying what I did tonight."
This marked Australia's second gold in Vancouver and second gold in Olympic aerials. In 2002, Alisa Camplin pulled off an upset victory. At the bottom of the mountain, she admitted she fell on the way down because she wasn't all that accomplished a skier.
Li and Guo won the fourth and fifth Olympic aerials medals for China, which saw a sport with a lot of medal opportunities and many good chances to resurrect careers of high-level gymnasts who couldn't take the final step in that sport.
They came into the Olympics ranked first and second in the world and had the package to win a gold here. Li, who has the words "Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die" printed on her skis, was the only woman in this competition to cram four spins and two flips into her jump.
She landed it, but her body and skis were less-than-perfectly aligned, which made a difference when compared to Lassila's jump - skis perfectly straight, arms to her side and a smooth landing.
Having three flips, compared to two for Li, sealed the deal.
"That's the most difficult jump that she can do," Lassila said. "Ever since I saw this sport, I wanted to jump like a man. I saw how wonderful they were, and triple somersaults and that was always my goal."
After her jump, Lassila only had to wait out one more competitor. That was Xu Mengtao, the Chinese teenager who led after the first round and is expected to be the future of the sport in her country. Maybe she will be, but with the pressure of the last jump on her, she landed badly, did a 180-degree spin and went skidding down the hill backward for a second, meaning it would be Australia, not China, on the top of the medal stand.
"I shouldn't have that much pressure, I'm too young," Xu said. "That's why I picked a high degree of difficulty; that's what I wanted to worry about."
The 27-year-old Melbourne native, who shredded her knee during qualifying at the 2006 Turin Games, enjoyed a much better time on West Vancouver's Cypress Mountain, nailing a pair of jumps to not only prevent a Chinese sweep, but knock the world's up-and-coming aerials power off the top of the podium.
Lassila looked like she was stepping out of bed, not flying through the air, when she landed her second jump to give herself a total of 214.74 points, a 7.5-point margin over Li Nina, who won her second straight Olympic silver. Chinese teammate Guo Xinxin took bronze.
"After Torino, I knew that I didn't want to give up," Lassila said. "I knew there was more left in me, and at that point I didn't think I was done with this sport. I knew I could jump like this. I wanted to achieve that; it was self-satisfying what I did tonight."
This marked Australia's second gold in Vancouver and second gold in Olympic aerials. In 2002, Alisa Camplin pulled off an upset victory. At the bottom of the mountain, she admitted she fell on the way down because she wasn't all that accomplished a skier.
Li and Guo won the fourth and fifth Olympic aerials medals for China, which saw a sport with a lot of medal opportunities and many good chances to resurrect careers of high-level gymnasts who couldn't take the final step in that sport.
They came into the Olympics ranked first and second in the world and had the package to win a gold here. Li, who has the words "Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die" printed on her skis, was the only woman in this competition to cram four spins and two flips into her jump.
She landed it, but her body and skis were less-than-perfectly aligned, which made a difference when compared to Lassila's jump - skis perfectly straight, arms to her side and a smooth landing.
Having three flips, compared to two for Li, sealed the deal.
"That's the most difficult jump that she can do," Lassila said. "Ever since I saw this sport, I wanted to jump like a man. I saw how wonderful they were, and triple somersaults and that was always my goal."
After her jump, Lassila only had to wait out one more competitor. That was Xu Mengtao, the Chinese teenager who led after the first round and is expected to be the future of the sport in her country. Maybe she will be, but with the pressure of the last jump on her, she landed badly, did a 180-degree spin and went skidding down the hill backward for a second, meaning it would be Australia, not China, on the top of the medal stand.
"I shouldn't have that much pressure, I'm too young," Xu said. "That's why I picked a high degree of difficulty; that's what I wanted to worry about."
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