Park City, UT – Overall World Cup leader, Guangpu Qi of China won the men’s event at Thursday’s Visa Freestyle International Aerial World Cup at Deer Valley Resort in Utah. Olivier Rochon of Canada was second, followed by Oleksandr Abramenk of the Ukraine in third. For the women, Yu Yang took the win, followed by Samantha Wells of Australia in second, and Alexandra Orlova from Russia in third.

Yu, the fourth-overall qualifier, landed her own full, full in near-perfect fashion, vaulting herself ahead of Wells and Orlova with the top two ladies still yet to jump. On the men’s side, it was the second win of the season for Qi, who also took the season-opening event on home soil in Beijing and now leads the aerials World Cup standings. For Rochon, it was his first World Cup podium in over three years, and he looked to be back on the form that earned him the aerials crustal globe back in 2012/13.

Ashley Caldwell (Ashburn, Va.), the overall World Cup leader coming into Thursday’s third of seven World Cup events scheduled for this season, continued to push the envelope as the only woman to attempt a triple (full-full-full).

“Go big or go home!” said Caldwell, the top qualifier, after coming up short on the landing in the finals. “I’m trying to build up my consistency. The jump has a lot of reward, but it also has a lot of risk. There is a learning curve to it and I crash a lot, but I like making it a priority to get triples off all the time.”

“I could win with a lower a lower degree of difficulty, but I’m trying to create a different standard for myself, and that means I crash sometimes,” she added.

Morgan Northrop (Haymarket, Va.) and Chris Lillis (Pittsford, N.Y.) each scored career-best World Cup results to lead four Americans in the finals. Northrop, competing in her first World Cup event in two years due to an elbow injury, pulled a new trick out of her bag, a full-full, to finish sixth Thursday in the first of two World Cup aerials events at Deer Valley this week.

“I competed a new trick that I have never done before. I tried it yesterday and got three off, then tried it again today,” Northrop said. “It was my first World Cup back in two years, it’s on home turf, and it’s just awesome.”

Lillis, making his World Cup debut at age 17, stomped his landings on a lay-double-full-full to finish ninth.

“I couldn’t be happier with how I did today; just happy that I put it down when I needed too,” said Lillis, who’s following in the footsteps of his older brother Jon, a five-year member of the U.S. Team. “My older brother has always kind of taught me as I went along and inspired me to try harder, and maybe catch up to him one day.”

Thursday’s event was reschedule for Deer Valley due to lack of snow at Lake Placid, New York last month, which provided the athletes and extended break from competition.

“I’m really thankful they (moved the event to Deer Valley). We love going to Lake Placid, but we haven’t been able to jump (in competition) for almost a month and a half, so we’re ready for more contests,” said Alex Bowen (Springville, N.Y.), who also posted one of his World Cup results in 10^th place. “It was really nice that Deer Valley did this for us. ”

The Visa Freestyle International continues Friday with the fourth aerials World Cup event of the season at Deer Valley.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup
Visa Freestyle International – Deer Valley Resort – Park City, UT
Feb. 4, 2016

Women’s Aerials

Men’s Aerials