17 Nov 2009

Australia’s best winter athletes are ramping up their final preparations to qualify for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, taking place in Vancouver from 12 to 28 February.

It’s crunch time for the 40 Australian Institute of Sport/Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (AIS/OWIA) athletes aiming to qualify for the Winter Olympic Games in alpine skiing, aerial skiing, ski cross and mogul skiing; short track; skeleton; and snowboard half pipe and snowboard cross.

Alpine skiing

Craig Branch and Jono Brauer have already earned sufficient FIS world rankings to qualify them for the Winter Olympics. They are currently preparing for the World Cup, which takes place at Lake Louise, Canada on 28 November.

Aerial skiing

Jacqui Cooper and Lydia Lassila are two of the world’s top aerial skiers and have an excellent chance of qualifying for the Winter Olympics.

At the FIS Freestyle World Championships in Inawashiro, Japan in February, Cooper took the bronze in aerial skiing and became the first Australian skier to win three world championship medals in the sport. During the following month, at the final of the FIS Freestyle World Cup in Moscow, Lassila achieved third place and won the World Cup title.

Cooper and Lassila will be joined by Liz Gardner, Bree Munro and David Morris at the World Cup events in Chanchun, China on 19–20 December and Calgary, Canada on 9 January, which serve as Winter Olympic qualifiers.

Ski cross

Jenny Owens, Katya Crema and Scott Kneller have been training at Perisher ski resort in New South Wales on a snowboard and ski cross course modelled on the Vancouver Olympic one. The three athletes will be competing in qualification World Cup events in Innichen, Italy on 20–22 December and St Johann in Tirol, Austria on 5 January.

Mogul skiing

Dale-Begg Smith, Romane Cooper and Sam Hall have been hard at work at a training camp in Zermatt, Switzerland, in preparation for World Cup Olympic qualifying events in Suomu, Finland (12 December), Méribel, France (16 December) and Calgary, Canada (8 January).

Short track

Tatiana Borodulina is currently ranked fifth in the world and became the first Australian to win a short track speed skating World Cup, in Dresden, Germany in March this year.

Borodulina will join team-mates Lachlan Hay, Jeremy Beck, Elliott Shriane, Pierre Boda and Noah Essaghir to compete for Winter Olympic qualification in two World Cup events: Montreal, Canada (11–13 November) and Marquette, United States (12–15 November).

Skeleton

Michelle Steele and Emma Lincoln-Smith are among Australia’s strongest medal prospects, having both achieved top five results in the past year, at the World Cup and world championships, respectively.

Steele and Lincoln-Smith have been training hard with Lucy Chaffer and Melissa Hoar in preparation for competition in the eight rounds of the 2009–10 Intersport FIBT Bob and Skeleton World Cup, and the FIBT Intercontinental Cup series, which serves as a qualifier for the Winter Olympics.

Snowboard

Snowboard half pipe: Nate Johnstone and Holly Crawford have already qualified for the Winter Olympics; Johnstone is in first place on the men’s list and Crawford second on the women’s list.

Australia’s other strong snowboard medal contenders, Torah Bright, Ben Mates and Scott James, all competed at the World Cup event in Saas-Fee, Switzerland on 6 November. Bright won the women’s event and raised her world ranking from 24th to 9th, which secures her a place at Vancouver. Mates and James will have the chance to improve their rankings at several future events.

Snowboard cross: Damon Hayler and Alex Pullin are preparing to compete for Olympic qualification at the men’s World Cup event in Telluride, United States on 18 December. Johanna Shaw will also be in Telluride, competing for qualification in the women’s parallel slalom event.

Australia’s Winter Olympic hopefuls receive top-level coaching and sports science, and access to world-class training facilities, provided by the Australian Institute of Sport in partnership with the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia.