What a season for Australia’s aerial skiers, topped off with a gold and silver at the Almaty FIS World Cup overnight.
Laura Peel took gold and Danielle Scott silver at the last world cup event of the season. This is the second consecutive event that Australia has taken the top two positions at the FIS World Cup with Scott taking gold and Peel taking silver in Engadin, Switzerland a week prior.
This was Peel’s second gold and third podium for the season and put her in second place overall on the athlete rankings.
The podium performance for Scott was her fourth for the season and gave her enough points to secure her first ever Crystal Globe title as the number one ranked aerial skier in the world, joining Australian legends Kirstie Marshall, Jacqui Cooper, Alisa Camplin, Lydia Lassila and Peel as former World Cup champions.
Scott finished on top of the standings for the season with 462 points, Peel managed to move into second place on 362, overtaking Marion Thenault in third with 350.
In sunny conditions, Peel was the only female to jump spectacular triple back somersaults in finals, putting down a big score of 110.36 with her lay-full-full jump on the last jump of the day to give her the eighth World Cup victory of her career.
Scott also had an impressive day, qualifying for final in first, and moving into the super-final in second with her high-quality double somersault jumps. In the super-final, Scott performed a double full-full jump scoring 97.99 points to claim the silver medal.
Rounding out the podium in third was Canadian Thenault who scored 93.76.
“I had a tough start to the season, the first two events I just jumped like a potato, and when you only have six events it’s hard to make up points, so I am super stoked to finish second today,” said Peel, the 33-year-old double World Champion from Canberra.
“Australia 1-2 is massive and big congratulations to Dani on the Crystal Globe.”
Scott was thrilled after collecting her first ever Crystal Globe.
“There is a lot of weight to this one, for me it’s honestly – finally” said the 32-year-old from NSW, who now trains in Brisbane at the Geoff Henke Olympic Winter Training Centre water jump facility.
“I am so proud of the team around me, my coaches, just everyone, we have worked so well together this season and I am so grateful.”
