Aussie Skier to Try Vaulting

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/co ... 18,00.html

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Lydia's quest for rarefied air
By Nicole Jeffery
January 03, 2005
LYDIA IERODIACONOU does not waste her time with small dreams.

In the absence of injured Olympic champion Alisa Camplin, the 22-year-old Victorian has inherited the mantle of Australia's leading aerial skier, the natural successor to three world champions - Kirstie Marshall, Jacqui Cooper and Camplin.

And just as Camplin stepped into the spotlight and made it her own when Cooper was injured before the last Winter Olympics, Ierodiaconou is poised to fill the vacuum left by Camplin's injury.

But that is merely the first of her ambitions.

As she relaxed in Melbourne before rejoining the freestyle skiing circuit this week, she revealed her plan of attack.

First, she intends to confirm her position as the world's top-ranked skier this season. Then, she will continue working on the triple-twisting triple somersaults she plans to unveil for the Olympic Games in Turin next year.

At the Winter Games next February, she plans to do at least one trick which has never been done by a woman in competition before, in her quest to win Australia's second successive gold medal in the sport.

Then she intends to walk away from skiing and find a new challenge. She is leaning towards the pole vault at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

Coming from anyone else, such ambition would seem to be pure fantasy. But given Ierodiaconou's history of accomplishment in acrobatic sports, she just may do it.

She has already confounded all prevailing wisdom with her astonishing rise to the top of aerial skiing in just four years.

The former elite gymnast, who says her primary goal is "to be the best female aerialist that has ever lived", only stepped on to skis for the first time five years ago. Since then, she has mastered even the most demanding acrobatic tricks of the sport in record time.

Within two years she was an Olympian, finishing eighth in the field as Camplin delivered Australia's first skiing gold medal.

By the next year, she had surged to second in the world and was nipping impatiently at Camplin's heels.

She has begun this season by winning the opening two World Cup competitions at Mt Buller in Victoria, the second with a near-world record score, and she is now preparing to launch into the main part of the World Cup season at Mt Tremblant in Canada next weekend.

"I feel like I am the best aerialist in the world and, potentially, that's what I can prove this year," she said, looking forward to an intensive 12-week competition schedule which will take in both the world titles in Finland and an Olympic test event in Turin.

"Things are clicking for me now. I am more experienced - although I'm still relatively new in the sport - and that makes a difference.

"Until this season I was just going full on at it, like a bull in a china shop, but now I am a bit smarter and I don't feel I have to push that hard to achieve my goals.

"I came from a non-skiing background and there was a lot to learn, but now it's time for me to take one step back and trust the hard work I have done will pay off. I don't need to push, push, push."

She is certain that her trusty triple-twisting double somersaults can earn her the required results this year, but she won't rule out trying a triple somersault or two if they are going particularly well in training.

Ierodiaconou has worked on a triple-twisting triple somersault (the jump which brought Cooper to grief on the eve of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City) in water-jump training, and has completed the simpler lay-tuck-full (triple somersault with one twist) on snow.

She is confident that the triples will be ready for her second Olympic appearance.

"I landed my first couple on snow and I wasn't too scared or too nervous," Ierodiaconou said. "There hasn't been anyone who can do both triple-twisting doubles and triples before, and I think I am the only one who can do it for the Olympics."

Female aerial skiers are generally divided between the power athletes like Cooper, who can launch into triple somersaults, and the agile gymnasts like Camplin, who specialise in twisting in the air. Triple somersaults are riskier but they earn more points for the degree of difficulty.

"The triples mean more speed and going higher, but they make the doubles seem easier," she said.

"If I can manage to land triple-twisting triples at the Olympic Games I think there will be no contest."

But Ierodiaconou said she was not content just to perfect what other skiers have done before. She believes she can harness both the power and finesse to take her sport into new realms.

"From the first day that I began skiing I said that I wanted to jump like a man," Ierodiaconou said.

The bread-and-butter trick for the leading male aerialists is a quadruple-twisting triple somersault. No woman has done it, but Ierodiaconou does not believe it is beyond her.

"Skill-wise I can do that on water, but it's about transferring it to snow, and it's adding more risk," she said.

However, she reveals that she will change direction if she wins the coveted Olympic gold medal.

"I have other things I want to do," Ierodiaconou said. "Aerial skiing is hard on your body, it's not something you can do forever. And I am not a winter person. I miss the beach, I miss the summer."

She will consider taking on a less dangerous sport which still demands aerial skills.

"We will see what happens after the Winter Olympics, but I would like to go to the Beijing Games for pole vault," she said.

"I am not sure I have what it takes, but I have been thinking about it a lot lately. If everything goes well for me next year, then I will be ready for something different.

"I am going for everything at the Olympics and if I win gold, I can't top that. The pole vault is one of the only sports I can see myself doing. I've already told my coach (Olympic gold medal-winning coach Todd Ossian) that I am going to be a pole vaulter in Beijing, but I don't think he believed me."

He should.

[VaultNinja]

Better learn how to run.

[uconnvaulta]

Better learn how to run.

and on that note, paul has silenced the dream

[Robert schmitt]

Better learn how to run.

LOL

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/co ... 28,00.html

Skiing: Sky bird spreads her wings
By ARTHUR STANLEy in Sydney
11jan05

IT'S taken Lydia Ierodiaconou just five years to go from skiing beginner to world No. 1, so don't try telling her she can't win a Winter Olympics gold medal and then represent Australia in pole vault at Beijing in 2008.

"Why not? I like being 30 foot in the air, like a bird in the sky," said Ierodiaconou, who yesterday continued her amazing ascension as a skiing acrobat with a third straight World Cup victory at Mont-Tremblant, Canada.

"My immediate goals are to win the World Cup title this season and then bring home a gold medal from the Winter Olympics in Turin next year.

"But if everything goes well for me, I'd really like to have a go as a pole vaulter and maybe make it to Beijing.

"I love this sport (aerial skiing). Human beings are not supposed to fly, at least not without an aeroplane, but I love it.

"So I'm having fun thinking about becoming a pole vaulter. I can run pretty fast, I have good upper-body strength and I have no fear of being in the air."

Ierodiaconou, 22, was a four-time Victorian and two-time national junior gymnastics champion before injuries prevented her trying to qualify for Sydney 2000. She took her gymnastics skills over to winter sport and was an instant hit as a skiing acrobat, finishing in the top 10 at the Salt Lake City Olympics behind team-mate Alisa Camplin.

While she has never pole-vaulted previously, she even has her skiing coach Todd Ossian convinced she could do it.

"I didn't believe her at first but I don't doubt for a moment that she has the athletic ability and drive to do it," he said. "Lydia is one exceptional athlete."

Born in Melbourne of an Italian mother and Cypriot father, Ierodiaconou has stepped out of the shadow of Olympic champion Camplin to be Australia's leading medal hope 12 months out from the Winter Olympics.

She now has a commanding lead in the World Cup title chase with 300 points, 115 ahead of nearest rival, China's Nina Li on 185, who was second yesterday. Australian Jacqui Cooper, still on the comeback trail after injury, was a creditable sixth yesterday and is fourth overall.

With Camplin's rehabilitation after knee reconstruction reasonably advanced, Australia will field a powerful three-girl aerials team at Turin if they all stay healthy.

[rainbowgirl28]

Did she ever have any success in the vault?