 Lassila at the 2010 Winter Olympics | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1982-01-17)17 January 1982 (age 43)[1] Melbourne,Australia | |||||||||||||||||
| Education | Bachelor's degree | |||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | RMIT University | |||||||||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Skier & Entrepreneur and Motivational Speaker | |||||||||||||||||
| Employer | BodyICE | |||||||||||||||||
| Agent | One Management & Consulting | |||||||||||||||||
| Height | 157 cm (5 ft 2 in) | |||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 52 kg (115 lb) | |||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Lauri Lassila | |||||||||||||||||
| Children | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| Other interests | Surfing, Skiing, Travel | |||||||||||||||||
| Website | www | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  Australia | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Freestyle skiing | |||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Michel Roth[1] | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Lydia LassilaOAM (néeIerodiaconou) (born 17 January 1982) is an Australian Olympicfreestyle skier gold medalist who competed in the2002,2006,2010,2014 and2018Winter Olympic Games. She is the2010 Olympic champion and the2014 bronze medalist inaerials.
On 20 October 2010, Lassila was awarded the prestigious'The Don' award by theSport Australia Hall of Fame,[2] which recognised her ability to inspire as well as her achievements during 2010, including her gold medal performance at the2010 Winter Olympic Games.
Lydia Lassila (née Ierodiaconou) was born 17 January 1982[3] inMelbourne, Australia. She is ofGreek-Cypriot andItalian descent. Her mother is Italian and her father Cypriot.[4]
Lassila completed her primary schooling at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Primary School inSunshine, Victoria, and completed her secondary education atMethodist Ladies' College, Melbourne andWestbourne Grammar School. She completed abachelor's degree inApplied Science (Human Movement) atRMIT University.[5] She is married toLauri Lassila,[1] aFinnish former professional freestyle skier, whose career included placing 2nd inmoguls at theFIS Freestyle Skiing World Championships in 1999. She gave birth to her first son in 2011 after winning gold at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Her second son was born in 2015 after the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics where she claimed bronze.[1] In 2020, they moved fromLorne, Victoria, toKittilä,Finnish Lapland, near to theLevi fell.[6]
In June 2005, Lassila suffered a rupturedanterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and underwentknee reconstruction[1] using anallograft. 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 teammatesJacqui Cooper andAlisa 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.
At the2010 Winter Olympics inVancouver, Lassila won gold in the aerials, getting Australia's second gold medal for the games after snowboarderTorah Bright won gold in the halfpipe, also atCypress Mountain. This medal was also the second gold for an Australian in the aerials at all Winter Olympic Games, afterAlisa 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 placedLi Nina with 207.23 points. Australian team-matesJacqui Cooper andElizabeth Gardner finished 5th with 194.29 and 12th with 86.70 respectively.[7]
Lassila achieved a bronze medal in theFreestyle Skiing Women's Aerials event. Her jump was a quad-twisting triple somersault.[8] If she had 'landed' it she would have been the first woman to do so, but she landed hard[9] and 'slapped' down on her back on landing. Her score for the aerial was 72.12.[8] Lassilas' prior jumps were scored at 95.76 and 99.22.[1]
At the beginning of 2017, Lassila returned to competition in a bid to return to the Winter Olympics for 2018. On 3 February 2017 she won her first World Cup event since 2014, clinching a close fought victory ahead of Kiley McKinnon (USA) and Xu Mengtao (CHN) at Deer Valley. She then went on to obtain the second and the third World Cup wins at the end of February in Minsk and in the beginning of March 2017 in Moscow.
Apart from her sporting medals, Lassila has also received other honours and awards:
Lydia is the subject of a feature documentary film calledThe Will To Fly that chronicles her life and sport pursuits.[15] The film was released in Australia in 2016 to much critical acclaim.[16][17] In 2022, Lassila joinedSeven Network's commentary team for the2022 Winter Olympics.[18]
In 2018, Lassila appeared as a contestant onAustralian Survivor: Champions vs. Contenders, competing in the fifth season of the competitivereality television seriesAustralian Survivor as part of the Champions tribe.[19] In the beginning of the game, Lassila dominated in challenges, winning for her tribe in many instances. Lassila made very strong relationships in the game, notably with fellow contestantsMat Rogers andShane Gould. Come the merge, Lassila was seen as a physical threat by many contestants and was voted out in 12th place.[20]
In 2020, Lassila returned to appear onAustralian Survivor: All Stars, being eliminated via a fire challenge against opposing tribe member Phoebe Timmins on Day 18.
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Australian Athlete of the Year 2010 | Succeeded by |
| Aerials |
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|---|---|
| Big air | |
| Halfpipe |
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| Moguls | |
| Ski cross | |
| Slopestyle | |
