Aerial skiing
Lydia Lassila confirmed her status as the best aerial skier in the world, winning gold in Vancouver on the back of a new triple twisting triple somersault that she had attempted just once before in competition, a remarkable performance.
Despite a preparation cruelled by injury, AIS team-mate Jacqui Cooper finished in fifth place, a remarkable result at her fifth Olympic Games.
The 37-year-old veteran missed an extended period of water-jump and on-snow training during the pre-Olympic year with hip and knee injuries – and missed three of the season’s six lead-up events - so the courage she displayed in landing her two finals jumps at Cypress Mountain was truly impressive.
Two top five results in the one event was far and away the best performance in our Winter Olympic history.
Liz Gardner also made the women’s aerials final, finishing in 12th position.
David Morris became only the second man to represent Australia in aerial skiing at the Olympics, and the first since Jono Sweet at Nagano 1998, and he made an impressive debut, missing a place in the final by just 0.89 points and finishing in 13th place.
The result capped off a extraordinary year for the Melbourne 25-year-old, who not only added two new jumps to his repertoire – a triple twisting and a quad twisting somersault – but also produced a personal best ninth place on World Cup and ended the year ranked 15th.
The highlight of Lassila’s World Cup season came in Deer Valley in January, as the 28-year-old produced a new world record score of 220.91points to claim the 10th victory of her career. A week later she added another in Lake Placid.
Alpine skiing
Craig Branch and Jono Brauer both skied to top 30 placings in the super G, Branch finishing in 29th position, with his AIS team-mate one place further back.
Figure skating
She may have been only 16, but Cheltzie Lee all the competition maturity of a seasoned skater in Vancouver, qualifying for the free program in 18th position after a personal best performance in her short routine.
Lee backed up in the long program, delivering a personal best overseas score and a pb total of 138.16 to finish in 20th place.
Given she had only been included in the Games field a few weeks before the opening ceremony, it was a tremendous performance.
And she wasn’t content with that.
At the 2010 World Championships several weeks later, the Sydney skater increased her free program personal best again on the way to a remarkable 17th placing.
Mogul skiing
Dale Begg-Smith became the third Australian to claim two Winter Games medals when he skied to silver in Cypress Mountain, joining Steven Bradbury and Alisa Camplin.
What made the result all the more remarkable was that it came a little over 12 months after a major knee injury and a reconstruction.
The result could so easily have been gold, with many seasoned observers rating Begg-Smith’s performance ahead of the gold medal winner.
There was some consolation to come for the 25-year-old, as he went on the wrap up a record-equalling fourth World Cup title.
A knee injury unfortunately derailed Ramone Cooper’s Olympic hopes, the Perisher skier sustaining a torn PCL (posterior cruciate ligament), partial MCL (medial collateral ligament) tear and a partial lateral meniscus tear at the Deer Valley World Cup in January.
Although he was able to take his place in the team, any chance of repeating his top ten season opening result was gone.
Britteny Cox was the youngest female competitor at the Games, and although she narrowly missed a place in the 20-woman final, finishing in 23rd place in qualifying, the experience she gained at the highest level will be invauable when she goes to Sochi in four years’ time.
Short track speed skating
Tatiana Borodulina was another Australian to register a top ten performance in Vancouver. The Brisbane skater finished in seventh place in the 1000 metres.
Borodulina and AIS team-mate Lachlan Hay both broke existing Olympic records, with her semi final in the 1000 metres the fastest women’s race in history.
Ski cross
Scott Kneller lined up for his first World Cup ski cross event in January 2009, and came to the Games as the last qualifier, with just 11 events under his belt.
Despite that limited experience – and despite a collarbone injury that kept him out of most of the season – he became one of the major Australian success stories of Vancouver.
The 20-year-old Cooma skier qualified in 12th place on the challenging Cypress Mountain course, then battled his way through the round of 32 and the quarter finals before finishing in seventh place overall.
AIS team-mates Jenny Owens and Katya Crema also made it through qualification, finishing in 13th and 15th positions respectively after making it through the first round of the finals.
Snowboard Halfpipe
Torah Bright went to Vancouver as one of the Games’ favourites, and fulfilled that promise in brilliant fashion.
Bright, 23, qualified in first place in the Cypress Mountain superpipe, but then crashed out in her opening run of the final.
Undeterred, she put down a superb second run, earning 45.0 points from the judges, a score that none of the subsequent eleven riders could match.
Holly Crawford also made the final 12, then rode to eighth place in the Olympic final.
Crawford went on to end the World Cup season with back-to-back halfpipe victories, climbing to the number three ranking in the world in the process.
In the men’s halfpipe, Torino Olympian Ben Mates finished in 17th place at his second Games, while 15-year-old Scott James – the youngest male at the Games – got his Olympic berth following a season ending knee injury to Nate Johnstone, and showed he has a great future, finishing in 21st place.
Snowboard cross
Although Damon Hayler was the best of the Australians in the snowboard cross, finishing in tenth place to capture his second straight top ten Olympic finish, it was Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin who provided the early excitement for Australian winter sports fans.
Pullin carved his way down the Cypress course to lead the first round of qualifying, then backed with another masterful run after being challenged for the fastest time in the second round.
Unfortunately he was unable to carry that form through the head-to-head finals, crashing out in the round of 32 to finish in 17th place overall.
But it was the first time the AIS 22-year-old had won qualifying, and the confidence he gained fired up his end of season World Cup campaign.
The Mt Buller rider captured the first World Cup victory of his career in Valmalenco following the Games, then made the podium again for silver at the World Cup final in La Molina.
To wrap up a great year, the two performances lifted him to the number two world ranking.
Snowboard PGS
Hampered by injury for much of the 2009/10 season, Joh Shaw came to Vancouver with a limited preparation.
She still came close to a finals berth finishing three places and half a second outside the top 16 in qualifying, for 19th place overall.
Speed skating
In Vancouver, Sophie Muir became the first Australian woman to represent her country in speed skating, after having taken up the sport just 15 months before.
The best result for the former inline skating world champion was 29th in the 500m, but most importantly, her Games debut, and the remarkable strides she has made in the sport over the past year show she will be a force in Socchi 2014.
Skeleton
Emma Lincoln-Smith rounded out the top ten performances for Australia, finishing tenth in skeleton at her Olympic debut.
The AIS slider started the competition in excellent form, placing sixth in her opening run at the Whistler Sliding Centre, then added a seventh in the second heat to finish the opening day sixth overall.
Unfortunately she slipped back on the second day, adding an 11th and 10th placings.
AIS team-mate Melissa Hoar finished two places further back in 12th position, her best run an eighth placing in the second heat.
The Games were difficult for both athletes, given their close proximity to the track at the time of the accident that claimed the life of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.
In the men’s skeleton competition, Anthony Deane ended in 23rd place.
Other Sports
In other sliding sports, Hannah Campbell-Pegg placed 25th at her second Olympic Winter Games, a creditable performance on a difficult and lightning fast track.
Australia also had a record complement in bobsleigh, with a 2-woman and two 2-man teams competing.
Chris Spring drove to the best result, finishing in 22nd place in the company of Duncan Harvey and substitute brakeman Anthony Ryan.
All in all, it has been another great year for AIS, NSWIS and VIS winter sports athletes and their programs.
Top ten Vancouver results
Torah Bright - 1st – Halfpipe
Lydia Lassila - 1st – Aerials
Dale Begg-Smith – 2nd – Moguls
Jacqui Cooper – 5th – Aerials
Tatiana Borodulina – 7th - 1000m Short Track
Scott Kneller – 7th – Ski cross
Holly Crawford – 8th – Halfpipe
Emma Lincoln-Smith – 10th - Skeleton
Damon Hayler – 10th – SBX
