Lydia Lassila

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Lydia Lassila
Lydia Lassila podium cropped.png
Lassila at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver
Personal information
Born (1982-01-17) 17 January 1982 (age 42)[1]
Melbourne, Australia
Education Bachelor's degree
Alma mater RMIT University
Height 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)[1]
Weight 119 lb (54 kg)[1]
Spouse(s) Lauri Lassila
Website www.lydialassila.com.au
Sport
Country  Australia
Sport Freestyle skiing
Coached by Cord Spero[1]
Medal record
Women's freestyle skiing
Representing  Australia
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2010 Vancouver Aerials
Bronze medal – third place 2014 Sochi Aerials

Lydia Lassila (née Ierodiaconou) (born 17 January 1982) is an Australian Olympic freestyle skier gold medalist who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, and the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. She is the 2010 Olympic champion and the 2014 bronze medalist.

On 20 October 2010, Lassila was awarded the prestigious 'The Don' award by the Sport Australia Hall of Fame,[2] which recognised her ability to inspire as well as her achievements during 2010, including her gold medal performance at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Personal life

Lydia Lassila (née Ierodiaconou) was born 17 January 1982[3] in Melbourne, Australia. She is of Greek-Cypriot and Italian descent. Her mother is Italian and her father Cypriot.[4]

Lassila completed her primary schooling at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Primary School in Sunshine, Victoria, and completed her secondary education at Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne and Westbourne Grammar School. She completed a bachelor's degree in Applied Science (Human Movement) at RMIT University.[5] She is married to Lauri Lassila,[1] a Finnish former professional freestyle skier, whose career included placing 2nd in moguls at the FIS Freestyle Skiing World Championships in 1999. She gave birth to a boy on 8 May 2011.[1] Lassila is sponsored by Acer and appears in television endorsements for them. She is also sponsored by Suzuki, Cadbury, Bolle and Under Armour. Lassila supports the Essendon Bombers in the AFL.

Career

In June 2005, Lassila suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and underwent radical knee reconstruction[1] in which a cadaver's achilles tendon was grafted into her knee to replace her damaged ACL. This allowed for a faster recovery and a swift return to the slopes in time for the start of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in February.

During the second qualifying round of the Torino aerials competition, Lassila's knee collapsed on impact after she attempted to land a difficult jump, re-rupturing her ACL[1] and forcing her to withdraw. However, taking inspiration from compatriots and teammates Jacqui Cooper and Alisa Camplin, both of whom have suffered similar knee injuries, the then 24-year-old Lassila vowed to return to the sport when she recovered.

Lassila made her comeback to World Cup competition 16 months later in China in December 2007, collecting a silver medal in her first event.

She ended the 2007/08 season ranked second in the World Cup standings, and then went on to win her first World Cup title in the following 2008/09 season.

2010 Winter Olympics

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See also: Freestyle skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics

At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Lassila won gold in the aerials, getting Australia's second gold medal for the games after snowboarder Torah Bright won gold in the halfpipe, also at Cypress Mountain. This medal was also the second gold for an Australian in the aerials at all Winter Olympic Games, after Alisa Camplin in 2002. There was a lot of pressure and hype from the Australian press for Lassila to do well as world number one. She was in second position after the first jump of the final, before posting the highest scoring second round jump. The leader after the first jump, Xu Mengtao, had the last jump, but scored more than 25 points below Lassila's second jump to fall down the rankings into sixth, due to a failed landing. Lassila had a combined score of 214.74, beating second placed Li Nina with 207.23 points. Australian team-mates Jacqui Cooper and Elizabeth Gardner finished 5th with 194.29 and 12th with 86.70 respectively.[6]

2014 Winter Olympics

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See also: Freestyle skiing at the 2014 Winter Olympics

Lassila achieved a Bronze medal in the Freestyle Skiing Women's Aerials event. Her jump was a quad-twisting triple somersault.[7] If she had 'landed' it she would have been the first woman to do so, but she landed hard[8] and 'slapped' down on her back on landing. Her score for the aerial was 72.12.[7] Lassilas' prior jumps were scored at 95.76 and 99.22.[1]

Awards

Apart from her sporting medals, Lasilla has also received other honours and awards:

  • 2010 Australian Institute of Sport 'Athlete of the Year'[9]
  • 2010 Sport Australia Hall of Fame, 'The Don' Award[2]
  • 2010 Governor’s Award for the Victorian Sportsperson of the Year[10]
  • 2010 Victorian Female Athlete of the Year- Kitty McEwan Award[11]
  • 2010 Ski and Snowboard Australia Athlete of the Year[12]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lydia Lassila bio@ NBC Olympics[dead link]
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Australian Athlete of the Year
2010		 Succeeded by
Anna Meares
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