Australian Institute of Sport/Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (AIS/OWIA) aerial skier Lydia Lassila is on track for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games after claiming two gold medals in the FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup.

Lassila won her first gold of the year on 15 January in Deer Valley, United States. She performed a triple twisting triple somersault and a double twisting triple jump to achieve a record overall score of 220.91 points, beating China’s Xu Mengtao, on 207 points, and triple world champion Li Nina, on 99.3 points.

The former aerial skiing record, 219.81 points, had been recorded by fellow AIS/OWIA skier Jacqui Cooper at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games. This time Cooper missed out on a medal, coming in 7th place, followed by other AIS/OWIA skiers Liz Gardner and Bree Munro in 18th and 19th place, respectively. 

Lassila repeated her medal-winning performance on 23 January at the next World Cup event, in Lake Placid, United States. She scored a combined total of 203.38 points for her final jumps — a single twisting triple and a double twisting triple — comfortably defeating Li Nina on 197.56 points and Chinese team-mate Zhang Xin on 181.72 points.

Cooper and Gardner missed out on spots at Lake Placid but have their sights set on the final World Cup event, held at Mont-Gabriel, Canada on 31 January.