Scott snatches back-to-back aerials Crystal Globes

Words & images courtesy of OWIA

Australian aerial skier Danielle Scott has won her second straight World Cup Crystal Globe after a silver medal performance in the final event of the season overnight in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Scott now has 21 World Cup medals, and joins Australian aerial skiing legends Jacqui Cooper, Alisa Camplin, and Laura Peel as back-to-back World Cup Crystal Globe champions.

Heading into the final event, Scott trailed Winter Vinecki of the USA by 12 points on the standings and needed to beat the American by a minimum of one place to move into first on the rankings.

The qualification round took place early in the morning under foggy conditions, but finals were cancelled in the afternoon due to the visibility further deteriorating making conditions unsafe. Results from the qualification round were subsequently used to determine the final results.

In the qualifying round, Scott scored 87.25 points for her full-full double twisting double back somersault jump, which put her in second place. Vinecki struggled with her full-full jump scoring only 71.50 points which put her in tenth place, allowing Scott to unexpectedly clinch the Crystal Globe by a comfortable margin.

Canadian Marion Thenault claimed the victory after scoring 94.11 points jumping a double full-full triple twisting double back somersault, with Fanyu Kong of China rounding out the podium in third with 82.21 points for her full-full.

The final standings saw Scott in first place on 420 points with Vinecki in second on 378 and Thenault third on 311.

“I am just so incredibly happy, this is a dream come true to go back-to-back and win the globe twice” said the 33-year-old Scott from NSW, who trains in Brisbane at the Geoff Henke Olympic Winter Training Centre water jump facility.

“Every jump counts is I all I can think about right now, as in the qualification round the weather was much better and I did a nice jump and its paid off.”