Abbey Willcox wins first medal of her World Cup career
Published Sat 08 Feb 2020
Abbey Willcox has had a breakthrough performance to claim the first World Cup medal of her career, winning bronze under lights in Deer Valley, USA.
The 23 year old from the Central Coast in NSW, qualified for finals in fourth place, and finished in fifth place in the first round of finals to advance to the top six super final.
Willcox landed her lay-full double back somersault in the super final, to give her 81.78 points and the bronze medal, with 2019 World Champion Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya of Belarus taking victory with a big score of 106.74, and American Megan Nick in second place with 83.89 points.
“It feels absolutely unreal and to be doing it in Deer Valley with this crowd is amazing,” an excited Willcox said after the event.
“A lot of nerve’s, a lot of adrenaline, a lot of excitement.”
“It was my first time in the finals and on the podium so I had all sorts of emotions going on.”
“We has a couple of tricky days training, it was snowing a lot and I knew I could jump during the snow, during the wind because we’ve had a lot of practice for that in the past, so I just took it jump by jump.”
“I’m really excited for the next four world cups and the season and I can’t wait.”
After three events, Laura Peel is currently ranked third in the world, with Willcox moving up to sixth on the FIS World Cup standings.
The next stop on the World Cup tour for the aerial skiing athletes will take place in Moscow, Russia, with a spectacular city event, with the aerial site made out of scaffolding and snow trucked in.