Aerials, Women

The World Cup leader in 2005-06 was Switzerland’s Evelyne Leu, while the 2005 World Champion was Li Nina of China. Also competing was the Australian gold medalist from 2002, Alisa Camplin, and her teammate, Jacqui Cooper, who had been favored in 2002 only to tear her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) a week before the Salt Lake City Olympics. Camplin was herself returning from major knee reconstructive surgery in 2005. The event had to be postponed two days because of heavy snow.

In the qualifying round, Cooper had the best score on both runs, and her total of 213.56 was a world best score for women’s aerials. In the first run of the final, the three leaders were all Chinese, with Li in second place, behind Guo Xinxin leading, and the 1998 Olympic silver medalist, Xu Nannan, in third. Camplin was in fourth, and Leu fifth, while Cooper could not repeat her qualifying success, and would eventually place eighth, falling on both of her jumps. In the second round, Leu had by far the best run, with her back full-full-full, and moved up to win the gold medal. Li held onto second place, while Camplin moved up to a bronze medal, with Xu dropping down to fourth. In 2007, Cooper would return to win her fourth World Cup title, the most ever by a freestyle aerials skier.