Lydia Lassila is not sure whether the Sochi Olympics will be her last – but she is certain she’s left her mark on the sport she loves.
Lassila, who grew up in Diggers Rest, won bronze in the women’s aerials at Sochi last month, with the final jump of the tournament cementing her place in history.
She went for the quad twisting triple somersault, a jump that no female had attempted in competition. While she nailed the trick perfectly she back-slapped on the landing, relegating her from gold to bronze.
But Lassila has no regrets. “Sometimes you’ve got to take risks and be prepared to lose in order to win,” Lassila said.
“That was a risk I wanted to take … doing that trick was an important goal of mine and I nearly had it. Just to do it, whether you land it or not is a massive step forward.”
Lassila went into the Sochi games as the defending gold medallist, having been victorious in Vancouver in 2010, something she said made the experience of her fourth Olympics far easier.
“I felt like there was less pressure on me because I already had something I’d always wanted,” Lassila said.
“It was more about me making it through each round … if I had the chance, I’d do that trick and see how it went. There’s so much pressure on every Olympics, so I certainly didn’t feel any extra pressure being the defending champ.”
The bronze medal puts Lassila alongside Alisa Camplin among our most successful aerial skiers, but Lassila believes she’ll be remembered more for the final jump of her games than the medal this time around.
“To attempt something that’s never been done is a great achievement and I don’t think I’ll be remembered for winning bronze in Sochi … I’ll be remembered for doing that trick,” Lassila said. “I always believed I could do it. You could miss the landing on any jump, and there’s always ‘what ifs’ … I didn’t want the ‘what if I’d never tried it’; I just wanted to take my chance. I’ll never complain about a medal no matter what colour.”
Lassila plans to take some time off in the immediate future but hasn’t ruled out a crack at a third medal in four years’ time in South Korea.
“Four years is a long time to wait, and my priority has never been on world cups or other events – it’s always been on the Olympics,” Lassila said.
“If I do come back, I’ll just build towards an Olympics. I’ll take some time off now and see where the levels of motivation are at … if they’re the same, then I’ll be continuing.”
