There were blown knees and blown opportunities for Lydia Lassila but Australia’s fifth Winter Olympic gold medallist always seemed to know how to rebuild. She did it after Turin four years ago.
Already with precious little time to get ready for the Games after injuring her knee in 2005, Lassila landed heavily on on the Sauze D’Oulx jumpsite in qualifying and screamed out in immediate pain.
It took her almost two years to get back to where she was prior to that moment.
Asked whether she’d considered giving it away she was honest.
“There was times,” she admitted.
“Most of the time it was because I was in a lot of pain with my knee … I was away most of the year and it’s pretty lonely sometimes.
“There’s huge sacrifices involved.”
Alisa Camplin, no stranger to knee injuries herself after tearing her ACL just four months prior to the Turin Games before going on to win bronze, described her former teammate’s win as being “justice”.
“Every girl that blows out her knee in this sport is by themselves in a very lonely place trying to come back and trying to decide whether it’s worth the effort,” Camplin said.
“This is when you have to come form the absolute bottom to the absolute top and Lydia worked her way up every single day with gritted teeth.”
But it wasn’t the only difficulty she had to endure.
Coming in an era of the dominant Jacqui Cooper and determined Camplin, Lassila was four times a runner-up in the overall crown for best aerial skier of the season.
It was a bridesmaid tag she also bore through gritted teeth.
But the 2009 season marked her breakthrough, it wasn’t always pretty but she sealed the title with a third place at a World Cup meet in Moscow.
With a clear mind and strong knee she spent the next year meticulously planning for Vancouver, perfecting a triple twisting triple somersault that would give her a degree of difficulty equal to any of her competitors.
While preparation can be a lottery in a sport which sends competitors spiralling 15 metres in the air off an icy jump, Lassila looked in golden touch in the lead-up, claiming a world record in Utah last month and looking the best of the Australians in training here.
It was a far cry from the Lassila of two decades before.
She started her sporting career as a gymnast but retired at 16 and was considering a career as a professional surfer or even joining the circus.
Instead she became an aerial skier.
“I’ve known Lydia since I was 19, I met her at Mt Buller just after I won worlds in `99 and I thought oooh, this girl, she is going to be something special,” Cooper said on Wednesday night.
It probably took a few more years than everyone expected but Lassila became something special on Wednesday night.
LeBron James is going back to the Olympics for the first time in 12 years. Steph Curry is headed to the games for the…
Olyroos coach Tony Vidmar is refusing to put a line through Nestory Irankunda's hopes of playing at the Paris Olympics after claiming he is…
The 2023-24 NBA season promised so much for the Australian contingent - for a few it’s been the ideal runway to the Paris Olympics…
Basketball superstar Lauren Jackson has been included in the extended Opals squad for the Paris Olympics, despite announcing her retirement from the international scene.…
The Brisbane Olympics stadiums fiasco has had wild twists and turns in just the last few days, but we still might not have seen…
Olympic swimming legend and Australian Sports Commission boss Kieren Perkins has warned that "someone will die" if a multi-sport event that allows athletes to…
