Danielle Scott has wrapped up the Winter Olympic qualification period in style, delivering back-to-back podium finishes at the final Aerial Skiing World Cup events in Lake Placid, USA.
VIS aerial skier Danielle Scott has returned to the top of the podium, claiming her first World Cup victory since March 2023 in Lake Placid, USA. The win marks her first podium finish of the 2025-26 season, and seventh World Cup victory of her career.
Three Australians qualified for top-12 finals, performing the full-full double twisting double back somersault. Laura Peel qualified in first place, Scott was close behind in second on 86.62, and Airleigh Frigo was ninth with 80.01.
Scott advanced to the six-athlete super-final in second place after performing a full-full jump, and Peel squeezed into sixth place with her lay-full-full double twisting double back somersault. Frigo narrowly missed the cut, finishing seventh.
Scott was impressive in difficult wind conditions in the super-final, scoring 95.88 points for her double full-full triple twisting double back somersault to take the victory.
She has been planning for triple back somersaults this northern hemisphere season and was aiming to compete them for the first time this season in Lake Placid, but windy conditions put that plan on hold.
Image: Scott wins the Lake Placid Freestyle World Cup, the seventh world cup victory of her career (credit: OWIA / Chris Hocking)
“I’m just letting this sink in. I’ve had a rough run this season,” said 35-year-old Scott.
“A lot of highs and lows, coming back to triples has been tricky. Today I just needed to go prove myself, and I did that, so I’m stoked.
“I was hoping to do triples, and we made some hard decisions and decided to keep it on the double. I think it paid off. I want to do them, so let’s get Mother Nature on our side.”
A second World Cup event was held the following day, serving as the final Olympic qualification event for aerials.
The challenging conditions persisted with strong winds and falling snow, but it didn’t hinder Scott who added a bronze medal to her weekend haul, bringing her career tally to 27 World Cup podiums.
“These back-to-back podiums over the past few days are what I am looking for,” she said.
“We’ve had tricky conditions, but I have done some nice jumps and I am looking forward to the next month’s training.
The girls right now are doing some really big jumps, its super exciting. For the conditions out here today, I just played the game and put my jumps down, but I am super inspired by what the girls are doing and can’t wait to get out there and do it too.
“We’ll stay in Lake Placid for a few more days of training before heading to Switzerland to knuckle down and get everything we need in place ahead of the Olympics in Italy.
Peel and Abbey Willcox also advanced to the top-12 finals at the second event. Willcox finished eighth with Peel progressing to the six-athlete super-final and finished fourth.
Sidney Stephens and Reilly Flanagan were also in action over both World Cups, finishing with their highest rank in the first event with 23rd and 28th respectively.
Article and cover image credit: Olympic Winter Institute Australia (Andrew Pattison / Chris Hocking)
