Steve Omischl of Kelowna, BC, clinched the season’s crown in men’s aerials with a victory on Saturday at the World Cup in Russia, while Deidra Dionne of Red Deer, Alta., won a silver in women’s aerials.
Steve Omischl
Omischl totalled 240.32 points for his fifth victory this season. Stanislav Kravchuk of Ukraine finished second in 236.45 and Nicolas Thepaut of France, third at 226.26.
“Anytime I win an event I’m pleased,” said Omischl. “And I also jumped well. I feel like I really earned this one. Plus the conditions were great today which allowed everyone in the field to get off their hardest jumps. That put a lot of pressure on everyone and I was able to overcome that.”
In the overall standings, Omischl is now uncatchable.
“Winning the overall is something very special to me,” he said. “I really believe it is the hardest thing to do in sport. It’s even harder than winning at World Championships or the Olympics. You have to perform every single week. It really defines the best athlete.”
More than 35,000 spectators were at the competition, one of the largest crowds in recent memory for a freestyle skiing competition.
“The crowd wasn’t too happy with me because I bumped a Russian down to fourth place with my performance,” said Omischl with a laugh.
In women’s aerials, Elizabeth Gardner of Australia was the winner at 86.15 with Dionne second at 83.16 and Xin Zhang of China third at 83.00. It is Dionne’s first big result since coming back from a serious injury that knocked her out all of last season.
Dionne hurt her neck in September 2005 in Buller, Australia, and underwent surgery to stabilize her cervical spine. After the Turin Olympics, she took the 2006-07 season off to strenghthen herself mentally and physically for competition. It was last summer before she began jumping again.
“It’s another little step along the journey,” said Dionne. “I’m jumping better every week and I take a lot of confidence from that. Getting a medal at this point is faster than I would have hoped for, as I’m doing easier tricks this year. We were ready to celebrate the fifth and sixth places… But today it happened; I was one of the best girls out there.”
It’s Dionne’s final competition this season.
“I don’t want it to end,” she said. “I feel so healthy I want to continue.”
