Olympic gold and bronze aerial skier medalist, Lydia Lassila, tells her story on the big screen with the launch of The Will to Fly in cinemas this march.
The Will to Fly is an historic cinematic story about the life and tumultuous sport career of Lydia Lassila through the times of world dominance by the Australian aerial ski team. As a young gymnast, Lydia Lassila’s Olympic aspirations were set and then dashed by injuries and missed opportunities.
Aerial skiing provided a second chance opportunity to realise her dream – and create many new ones. Through an experimental roller-coaster career of guts and perseverance, she turned some major setbacks into fuel for an all-mighty comeback. Lydia won the 2010 Olympic Games with a world record score still held today.
After winning the 2010 Olympic Games, Lydia returned to the sport as a young mother, with a pursuit of becoming the first woman to perform the most complex acrobatic manoeuvre that only men had ever achieved before, a “quadruple twisting, triple somersault” on skis.
She had a title to defend, but more importantly a score to settle, with herself. This is a quest to reach personal fulfilment by achieving her true potential, on the world stage at the Sochi Olympics in 2014.
“I saw this film as attractive for a number of reasons. Aerial skiing isn’t a sport that gets a lot of exposure, however, it’s one of the first to sell out at an Olympics so I wanted to share how amazing our sport is and what is actually involved” says Lassila about The Will to Fly.
“I also thought it would be great to document myself returning to elite sport as a mother, and showing other female athletes that a successful return is possible. Now that the film is complete, I can see how The Will To Fly can relate back to women in general and the fact that women can still strive for personal goals whilst being a mother.”
