Winter Olympics 2018: Lydia Lassila career ends

After failing to qualify for the finals in PyeongChang, Lydia Lassila was as devastated as the mountainside was empty.

Lydia Lassila after crashing on her final jump in the Women's Freestyle Aerials qualifier, at Phoenix Snow Park. Picture: AAP.

The lights had dimmed, the spectators had long disappeared and the icy hill at Phoenix Snow Park in Bokwang was eerily quiet, the wind having died down. Lydia Lassila, with one hand on skis, one hand on her head, was as devastated as the mountainside was empty.

She had two chances to qualify for the PyeongChang Winter Olympic final, and unlike her teammates Danielle Scott and Laura Peel, who both earned a spot in the final, both Lassila’s attempts ended up in a misjudgment of the gusty tail wind and the ignominy of backside landings. And Lassila’s five time Olympic career, which started as a wide-eyed Melbourne gymnast called Lydia Ierodiaconou who learned to ski aerials has ended, the bookends not matching the Vancouver Olympic gold and the stunning quadruple twisting triple somersault, with a shaky landing, that secured her a bronze in Sochi.

Lydia Lassila competes in the women's aerials qualification event. Picture: AFP.

“It is brutal, it is a disappointment, obviously, a feeling of loss in a way,” Lassila said to three journalists in the minus nine degree temperatures more than an hour after her final aerials performance. Everyone else had trudged down the hill to buses and warmth adding immeasurably to the sense of loss and loneliness that Lassila was experiencing.

“I lost an opportunity and I feel pretty down,” she said.

Day 6 recap: How it unfolded

At that, Lassila, one of Australia’s toughest competitors, having fought back from an horrific knee injury at the Turin Winter Olympics to win gold at the Vancouver Olympics four years later, started to tear up.

“That moment when you know it is over, it is over,” she said. Hitting the last kicker, Lassila knew in the air that the tailwind had pushed her further than she expected and she tried to stretch it to try and save the landing.

“Yep that was my last jump,” she said, noting that she can’t sneak in another attempt to have a memory of a perfect landing.

To her eldest son Kai, six, who has travelled to the last few world cups in preparation for the Olympics, and who hates seeing mummy crash, Lassila said directly: “I am so sorry Kai.’’

But Lassila had also brought to the world cups and the pre-Games training, her youngest son Alek, two, demonstrating that athletes could still cope with the demands of a young family, and run a business. She said it was “a wild ride’’ negotiating logistic challenges.

She said: “I enjoyed it (the PyeongChang campaign) because I had my boys with me, and such a supportive husband in Lauri. When I said I wanted to go back, he rolled his eyes but as soon as I made that decision he supported me. It has been a wild ride to bring the boys along and have them at training camps and it just proves you can do it as a mother, you can run a business as an athlete and a mum, you can do it all, it is just a matter of logistic challenges, but its possible.’’

Lassila said she will head home to Lorne, in Victoria, once the men’s aerials competition has finished and she has cheered on David Morris. She has ruled out remaining in the sport as a coach saying she was too impatient for such a role, but she would continue to represent athletes rights and views with the international ski federation and the Australian Olympic Committee, and also help mentor the next generation of aerial skiers.

“I don’t think it has sunk in yet,’’ Lassila said of her retirement. Her final parting comment to us was “’d love a big glass of red’’.