Last month Australian freestyle skier Danielle Scott told her family and friends to cancel their plans to watch her compete in Milano-Cortina because she was feeling so low about her form.
That meant the aerials veteran’s loved ones, husband Clark aside, weren’t in Livigno to watch the four-time Olympian achieve a lifelong dream when she finally clinched a medal.
An emotional Scott, 35, described winning silver as the ‘best day of my life’, the reward coming after she’d previously been unable to translate her impressive World Cup and world championship form to the Olympics stage, with her best result being a ninth place.
‘To finally have this around my neck, I mean, it’s taken four Olympics and it’s been an incredible ride of frustration, a lot of highs, a lot of lows, but today, I just put my heart out there,’ she said.
‘I left everything out there. I jumped the way I wanted to, so this just means everything.
‘I thought I was prepared for these moments but the last two Olympics I walked away heartbroken and I just told myself I wasn’t prepared to walk away heartbroken again.’
Australian freestyle skier Danielle Scott has provided the feel-good moment of the Winter Olympics after winning a silver medal
Her previous best finish at the Olympics was ninth – but the veteran produced in Milano-Cortina
After competing at two World Cup events in Canada in early January and placing 19th and 20th, Scott said she was in a ‘really difficult place’ and decided to ban her biggest fans from the Games.
‘I told all my family and friends that they couldn’t come to the Olympics, they’d booked their tickets and it was really heartbreaking to say that because I just was feeling the pressure and I just needed to focus on myself.
‘I was just so frustrated and not jumping the way I needed to…so this is for them and I’m grateful they believed in me.’
Australia’s top medal hope, two-time world champion Laura Peel, had missed the event after rupturing her ACL in a pre-Games training fall, but Scott stepped up in style at the Livigno Snow Park.
She delivered the best performance of the day in the first final, scoring a career-high 117.19, which was superior to the eventual winning score of gold medallist Xu Mengtao.
The Games were the first time she’d attempted a triple-twisting triple in competition in three years, but with five of the six super finalists doing the trick, she had no choice.
The Australian couldn’t quite replicate her very best in the high-pressure medal round, brushing her hands on her landing to score 102.17, with defending champion Xu nailing her effort for a score of 112.90.
Three Chinese skiers filled the top four positions alongside Scott, who has been long-time friends and rivals with Xu, also 35.
An emotional Danielle Scott described winning silver as the ‘best day of my life’
Aussie Danielle Scott is pictured left, next to gold medallist Mengtao Xu from China
‘I am frustrated that I didn’t keep my hands from picking up that loose change and maybe could have meant that I got the gold, but that’s OK – this means everything to me and I’m so proud.’
Her medal came 24 years to the day after Alisa Camplin became Australia’s first Winter Olympics female gold medallist, winning the event at the Salt Lake City Olympics, with the team Chef de Mission watching on in Italy and the pair embracing in celebration.
‘It’s been 12 years of coming in with the Olympic dream and now finally she does the most beautiful jumps of her life so I couldn’t have been more happy for her,’ said Camplin, with Scott’s silver bringing the record medal haul to six — three gold, two silver and a bronze.
‘That’s the beauty of sport, isn’t it? It just comes down to the moment and she’s worked really hard for this mentally and emotionally.
‘That was a next-level female aerial final, one of the greatest competitions of all time and for her to win silver was outstanding.’
Australian Abbey Willcox also made the top-12 first final before bowing out while Airleigh Frigo and rookie Sydney Stephens didn’t make the cut.
