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Head of Australia’s Winter Olympic Institute Geoff Lipshut admits aerial skier Jacqui Cooper hasn’t had as good a lead-in as she did before the Turin Games four years ago.
Cooper, attending her fifth Games, has been something of a mystery in the preamble before the Winter Olympics, training on the east coast of Canada and struggling in her only two World Cup competitions.
It’s effectively the last chance saloon for the 37-year-old, who has dominated the sport like no woman before her in claiming five World Cup titles, but has yet to snare an Olympic medal.
Cooper, defending World Cup champion Lydia Lassila, Liz Gardner and Bree Munro will head the Australian charge when qualifying for the aerials begins at Cypress Mountain on Saturday.
While training has been relatively incident free on a soft Cypress Mountain site, Lipshut admitted Cooper hadn’t put in the number of jumps she had before her record breaking performance in qualifying for the 2006 Games.
“I don’t think she has had the same quality lead-in,” Lipshut said.
“It’s not form, just not as good a lead in, in terms of getting the number of jumps done.”
Lipshut said Cooper had peaked a day early in Turin after bombing out in the final following her dominant qualifying.
“It’s just a matter for her to do one jump at a time and if you get in the final you get in the final,” he said.
“Whether you’ve set a world record as Jacqui did last time it’s the result after the final that counts, not the result after the semi-final.”
Lassila crashed on one jump in training on Friday but walked away unscathed.
Twelve women progress to Wednesday’s final.
In action on Friday Emma Lincoln-Smith couldn’t quite keep up the pace in the skeleton dropping from sixth to 10th while Melissa Hoar was 11th.
In the men’s super G Craig Branch finished 29th while teammate Jono Brauer was 30th.
Fifteen competitors failed to finish while another three were disqualified on a course that quickly rutted up in the mild conditions.
Brauer, a two-time Winter Olympian who has had a litany of knee problems over the years, announced his retirement after the race.
“My knee is at the point now that doctors have advised me that its time to hang up the boots, so this is the final curtain on my racing career,” Branch said.
Meanwhile, Jenny Owens wrenched her knee again in ski cross training on Friday.
The former alpine racer has had a torrid run getting to these Games after hurting her knee several times over the past two months and will struggle to be at her best for the event starting on Tuesday.
And in the men’s skeleton, Anthony Deane finished 23rd.