Aerial skier Lydia Lassila says she’s feeling very confident and believes she can keep her title in next year’s Sochi Winter Olympic Games in Russia.

The Cypriot Australian (formally Lydia Lerodiaconou) was one of three Australians who managed to get a medal in the Vancouver Games in 2010. She is hoping to get back to back golds in the aerial competition and has been working remarkably hard in the pre-season.

“Right now, I feel I am jumping better than I have ever jumped,” she declared this week.

She’s hoping to unleash the ‘full-double-full-full’ flip, a three flip and four twist trick that has for a long time only been achieved by men.

“I have done a bunch on water so I feel pretty confident with that trick, so it’s now just a matter of working through it on snow and having the opportunity to do it,” said Lassila.

“I probably won’t unleash it until the Olympics. I hope to have it done by the pre-Olympics camp two weeks out from the Games.”

As she approaches her fourth Olympics, the 31-year-old skier will set a great example for Australia’s largest and best-credentialled winter team.

Winter team chief Ian Chesterman predicts 55 Australian athletes will compete in Sochi, up from 40 in Vancouver.

“In the last year, our athletes have won 21 World Cup or world championship medals and those have come from 15 athletes across 11 disciplines,” he said.

“We are looking for our highest medal tally (one better than the three won in Vancouver).”

For Lassila, she will be going up against her main opposition at the World Cup in China at Beida Lake on December 15.

Chinese skier Mengtao Xu is one of three women that have been able to master the same trick Lassila is working on and won five of six World Cup events
last season, finished third in the other and also took out the world championship in Norway.

Despite this, Lassila isn’t worried.

“I don’t think they (the Chinese) really have anything to hide,” she said.

“They are strong – everybody knows that. I don’t know that they will surprise us with anything more.”

Source: The Australian, Ninemsn