Name Jacqui Cooper Role Freestyle skier | Height 1.74 m Weight 64 kg | |
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Jacqui cooper freestyle aerials vancouver 2010 winter olympics
Jacqui Cooper (born 6 January 1973 in Melbourne, Australia) is a retired Australian freestyle skier and motivational speaker.
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Cooper became participating in aerial skiing when she was 16, and was in the Australian team for 20 years. During her career she had many injuries, including a shattered knee, elbow, hip, shoulder and a broken back.
She competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics and came 16th. Cooper participated in the 1998 Winter Olympics. A crash in the qualifying round left her unable to compete.
At the Salt Lake Winter Games in 2002, she was the favourite to win gold, being the three time world cup champion. A training accident in the week before the games left her knee shattered. Teammate Alisa Camplin went on to win gold for Australia.
Cooper made her comeback at the 2004 Mount Buller World Aerials, two and a half years after her Salt Lake accident. She won the silver behind fellow Australian, Lydia Lassila (née Ierodiaconou). After having a long time off competition, she performed double somersaults, rather than her trademark triples.
At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Cooper entered the final as the favourite to win, having recorded a world record 213.56 in the qualification, however crash landings on both her jumps ended her chances.
Despite never winning an Olympic medal, Cooper arguably became the most successful women's aerial skier of all time after winning 24 World Cup gold medals and claiming her fifth World Cup title in Inawashiro, Japan.
In 2009 Cooper was appointed Company Ambassador for La Trobe Financial
Cooper was selected for the 2010 Winter Olympics, making her the first Australian woman to be on five Olympic teams, summer or winter. Cooper finished 5th in the 2010 Olympic competition. Fellow Australian Lydia Lassila won the gold medal.
Jacqui is a mother to 3 children; Madeline, Thomas and Grace (twins). Her eldest daughter was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease when she 2 years old. Jacqui is a volunteer ambassador for Coeliac VicTas.