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Show Wed/Thurs/Fri, January 17-19, 2018 The Park Record B-3 After stars crash, Park City athlete reaches super finals Madison Olsen lands just outside podium BEN RAMSEY The Park Record The price of going big is that sometimes, you don’t land. It’s something Ashley Caldwell has come to accept, but on Friday, when Caldwell and Kiley McKinnon, two of the U.S.’s top aerial skiers, both missed the super finals, it gave Madison Olsen and Madison Varmette, two athlete’s from the American B team, some time in the spotlight. On Friday, Caldwell missed making the super finals after not landing her jump cleanly at the FIS Visa Freestyle International Ski World Cup at Deer Valley Resort. “I kind of rocked back too hard,” she said after the com- TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Aerialist Madison Olsen spots her landing during her jump in the finals of the Visa FIS Freestyle World Cup Aerials at Deer Valley Resort Friday evening. TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Madison Varmette slams into the Ice Breakers banner as she attempts to stop herself following a successful aerials performance on Friday evening. After she stood up she was all smiles and took sixth overall in her first super finals performance. Continued from B-1 Lillis sticks his finals run things this year and to see him do well feels good.” Lillis said he is doing what he can to help his brother while he heals from the broken leg, but that is largely in the hands of the specialists treating him at U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s Center of Excellence. “It’s been a hard year for both of us, so I know this put a dinger in his year, but he knows how much I care about him and how much I love him,” he said. “He’s the best brother and I try and be the best brother I can be, and that’s pretty much all we can do.” Currently, his sixth-place finish puts him at ninth overall in FIS aerials, just behind Mac Bohonnon in seventh, who missed qualifying for the super finals after a rough landing on his finals jump. Maxim Buroz of Russia took first overall on Friday, followed by Guangpu Qi of China and Anton Kushnir of Belarus. With all the things outside of his control, Lillis is focusing on what he can do: the full, full, double full. “It’s a very hard trick to land and hard to perform, so it’s all about building up going into the Olympic Games,” he said. “That’s the petition. “Slipping a little too fast, went a little too big – it slapped back and I got seventh.” She said she wished she had reached a podium in one more event this season. With only an event at Lake Placid between her and the Pyeongchang Olympics, she needs to stand on a podium to clinch a spot on the team, but she said plans to do so through maximum degree-of-difficulty jumps. She and Mengtao Xu of China were the only athletes to attempt jumps with a 4.05 degree of difficulty, a multiplier which can send scores rocketing, as it did for Xu’s winning run. However, Caldwell said that won’t be the case in a few weeks. “Everyone’s going to throw down at the Olympics,” she said. “Here, people are still holding back their (degree of difficulty). Some people are starting to ramp up, but when the Olympics comes around you’re going to need over 100 points, and I’m positioning myself well to where I have the TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Jeff Meierhofer waves an American flag during the FIS Visa Freestyle International World Cup aerials event at Deer Valley Resort on Friday. The event, which was free and open to the public, featured aerialists from all over the globe. degree of difficulty that I can do that.” She said, just like most of the male competitors, she runs a risk of not landing, but it’s important to compete at a high level so she has practice performing at her maximum and landing in those situations. “I feel better every jump,” she said. “I feel less scared and I am performing more jumps well, so it’s just making sure that happens on contest day at contest jumps. Now that I feel like I have a lot more degree of difficulty under my belt, I’m going out (to Lake Placid) and TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD China’s Mengtao Xu throws her arms into the air, celebrating a successful jump during the finals of the FIS Visa Freestyle International World Cup Aerials event at Deer Valley Resort. doing a little more training, then hopefully I will put down some good jumps.” When Neither Caldwell nor McKinnon made it to the super finals, Olsen and Varmette stepped up. For Olsen, who grew up in Park City and watched the 2002 Winter Games here, it was “like a dream.” “My entire family is out here, friends that I went to high school with, it was awesome,” Olsen said after placing fourth overall. Varmette finished sixth -- her first time in the super finals. Olsen said she started skiing aerials at about 15 after switching from moguls. “I think (my parents) wanted to see some sweet jumps,” she said. Since then she has taken fifth in the World Championships and has had multiple high-level finishes at World Cup events. But she said Friday’s outcome was totally unexpected, especially after wind and rain put a damper on practices earlier in the week. “I kept it lower on the degree of difficult,” she said. “But I’ve been training these jumps for a long time, so I was ready.” International athletes lead aerials TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Aerialist Jon Lillis spots his landing during his jump in the finals of the FIS Visa Freestyle International World Cup Aerials at Deer Valley Resort on Friday. one I plan to use to win there. If I can keep building and keep the momentum going for (Pyeongchang), it would be really good.” But he has to get there first. He needs two podiums to objectively qualify for the Winter Games. Solid performances like Friday’s could prove to coaches he’s worth bringing as a discretionary selection. TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Jon Lillis holds up a number one after landing his jump successfully during the first round of finals in which he earned 130.53 points and advanced to the super finals round. (TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD) It was a day of international success for competitors at the FIS Visa International Freestyle Ski World Cup aerials event on Friday. In the men’s competition, Maxim Burov of Russia (center-left in yellow) finished first with a score of 131.67, followed by Guangpu Qi of China, 4, and Anton Kushnir of Belarus, 2. It was Burov’s third time competing at Deer Valley Resort, but said Friday was not only his best performance in Utah, but the best of his life. “In general he is a good athlete,” a coach said, translating for Burov. “And in training he is pretty good, but today he did the best he can do. He is very happy about it.” It is his only first-place World Cup finish, a level he has competed in since 2015. Now, Burov said, he plans to focus on the Olympics, which will be psychologically challenging for the 19-year-old as he competes with more experienced athletes. But he plans to keep competing at a higher level going into the Games. In women’s aerials, Mengtau Xu of China took first (center right in yellow), followed by Kristina Spiridonova of Russia, white bib 4, and Fanyu Kong of China, 31. “I already did my best today; I had a good landing,” Xu said after taking first. “Amazing day.” She said this season has been going very well for her, and she looks forward to staying on the podium. The 27-year-old has been a force to be reckoned with on the World Cup circuit, earning podiums since 2006 and taking the title of World Champion in 2013. Her performance was hampered by a knee injury in 2015, but she has come back to podium in every event she competed in since December of 2016. She said this was her first event she broke out a triple jump at this season. “There was a lot of pressure and nervousness on us,” she said. But it didn’t show in her performance, where her jump earned her 102.75 points and put her in the lead going into the super finals. “I’m doing very well,” she said after winning. “Everything is great.” |