What a season for Laura Peel. The Aussie aerial skier took her fifth gold of a truly stellar season at the FIS World Cup event in Livigno, Italy overnight.
Peel claimed her third FIS World Cup Crystal Globe as the number one ranked athlete at the end of World Cup circuit.
Australian female aerial skiers have now amassed a total of 14 Crystal Globes over the past 33 years. Peel now has the second-highest total among Australians with three, trailing only the legendary Jacqui Cooper, who has five. Other winners include Kirstie Marshall, Alisa Camplin, Lydia Lassila, and Danielle Scott.
Peel already had a near unbeatable lead in the standings and only needed to finish 12th or better to secure the title, leading Chinese skier Mengtao Xu by 78 points. Peel made sure of that by qualifying for the 12-woman final in second place.
Peel then performed a lay-full-full double twisting triple back somersault in the first round of finals, to advance to the top six super-final in second place on 91.83 points.
Then, in the super-final, Peel upped her degree of difficulty scoring an impressive 112.90 points for her spectacular full-full-full triple twisting triple back somersault in one of her best jumps of the season. Second place went to Xu of China on 105.17 and her teammate Meiting Chen was third on 91.44.
“I am so stoked, honestly I couldn’t be happier, it’s globe number three, I don’t think it gets any easier,” said the 35-year-old Peel from Canberra.
“That’s day four on this site now. I’ve got to say I really like it. It’s been working well for me, I’ve been jumping well. That’s a relief and I’m so excited to come back here for the Olympics.”
Peel finished the season first with 542 points, 98 clear of Xu on 444 and fellow Aussie Danielle Scott was third on 368, it is the sixth time Scott has placed in the top three on final season rankings.
The season will now conclude with the prestigious FIS World Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland, aerial skiing qualifications are on March 29 and finals March 30.
Peel is aiming for her third World Championship gold in St Moritz. She commented, “pretty much keep the same plan, what I have been doing I just want to repeat the same at the World Champs, it’s a long season, everyone is getting a bit tired, but we are super exited to head to St Moritz and it’s the peak of our season.”
*feature image, Laura Peel with Crystal Globe. Photo: OWIA/Hocking