Great Scott: Aussie aerials star lands silver medal
Melissa Woods |
High-flying freestyle skier Danielle Scott has finally clinched an Olympic medal at her fourth Games, the Australian aerials star bagging a thrilling silver at Milan-Cortina.
The 35-year-old’s previous best Olympic result had been ninth but a soaring, twisting Scott nailed her jumps in Livigno on Wednesday — all except the very last one — to finish on the podium for the first time.
Her medal came 24 years to the day after Alisa Camplin became Australia’s first Winter Olympics female gold medallist, winning the event Salt Lake City Olympics, with the team chef de mission watching on in Italy.
“Age is only a number,” beamed the veteran Scott after her terrific display.
“It’s important to remember that experience is a huge part of sport. And to have 35 years of experience is massive. You look at someone like Lindsey Vonn and it’s just inspirational for her to be even older than me (at 41) and still at the Olympics.
“So we shouldn’t get caught up with age, and just keep doing what we love.”
Camplin can only have been left stoked that Australia had pocketed a sixth medal in Milan-Cortina — three golds, two silvers and a bronze — to only enhance the gleam at their greatest Winter Games.
Yet there was still a hint of frustration that Scott, who had delivered the best performance of the day when she landed a corker of a jump in the qualifying rounds, couldn’t quite replicate her very best in the Super final round.
Australia’s top medal hope, two-time world champion Laura Peel, had missed the event after rupturing her ACL in a pre-Games training fall, but Scott stepped up in style at the Livigno Snow Park.
Transferring her strong World Cup and world championship form to the biggest stage, Scott qualified in second spot after landing a clean back-full-full-full.
Looking for a top-six finish in the first final to lock in a spot in the medal round, the NSW Central Coast athlete then scored a whopping score of 117.19, just shy of Peel’s world record mark of 118.05 set in 2022 and superior to the eventual winning score of gold medallist Xu Mengtao in the Super Final.
In that climax to the competition, where the six finalists all began from scratch again, Scott, on the very final jump of the competition, couldn’t deliver quite as brilliantly, rocking back on her landing and brushing her hands in the snow to keep balance.
Still, the aerial elements of her back-full-full-full were deemed strong enough by the judges to earn her the silver with a score of 102.17, behind Scott’s fellow 35-year-old defending champion Xu, who defended her title with an immaculate last-round effort of 112.90.
Scott wasn’t sure she had done enough to beat two other Chinese stars in the mix but was left ecstatic when she saw her scores and realised she had pipped Shao Qi (101.90) for second place, while Kong Fanyu (101.31) was just behind in fourth.
Scott and Xu have been friends and rivals over a long spell, and the pair were delighted that their years of nous had dragged them to the top again.
“She was also a very big inspiration, and to be alongside her today is just really special,” she said of the Chinese star.
Australia’s continued success story in the aerials led Scott to pay tribute to those who paved the way for her.
“In Australia, we’ve got quite a rich history in freestyle skiing, and we’re not known for our winter sports, so we really defy those odds,” said Scott.
“I’m following in the footsteps of many successful people, like Ali Camplin, Jacqui Cooper and Lydia Lassila, specifically for the aerials, so they were a huge inspiration for me.”
Australian Abbey Willcox also made the top-12 first final before bowing out while Airleigh Frigo and rookie Sydney Stephens didn’t make the cut.
AAP