World Champion Jacqui Cooper among 1990s champions recognised with the Snow Australia Medal
Published Fri 28 May 2021
Aerialist Jacqui Cooper, Australia’s most successful World Cup skier, leads the latest group of Snow Australia Medal recipients which were announced today by Snow Australia. The group includes cross-country skier Mark Gray, alpine skier Anthony Huguet, freestyle skiers Paul Costa (moguls) and Jonathan Sweet (aerials), plus Alpine Paralympians Craig Windham and 1998 Paralympic Downhill champion James Patterson.
A 5-time Olympian, Jacqui Cooper was both a trail-blazer for the Australian aerials skiing program and one of its most outstanding protagonists. Cooper won eight FIS Crystal Globes, three overall Freestyle crowns and five discipline titles - the most ever by any athlete in the history of aerial skiing. She was World Champion in 1999 and also collected two bronze medals at the Freestyle World Championships in 2007 and 2009.
"At 16 years old, I didn't even know what aerial skiing was," she recently told Snow Australia.
Cooper was introduced to the sport by Olympic Winter Institute of Australia CEO Geoff Lipshut, who at the time was a passionate freestyle skier and coach at Mt Buller. Lipshut already had Kirstie Marshall in his stable of young athletes, who would later win the 1997 aerials World Championships title, and was looking for other talented prospects.
"Our paths crossed one day and he could see that I was passionate about acrobatics. I actually wasn't great at it, but he thought my passion and drive would be enough for me to be successful in the sport," Cooper said.
Lipshut’s instinct was spot on. Cooper went on to compete in 139 FIS World Cup events, collecting 40 medals, including 24 golds, and staying on the Australian team for over 20 years. Her longevity was an amazing example of dedication and resilience despite her many injuries and setbacks.
"I stayed motivated purely because of the love affair I had with the sport,” Cooper explained. “Aerial skiing can be brutal. It can be cruel, but it's also exhilarating. It's uplifting. I absolutely loved it, and I was just as passionate on day one that I was when I landed my final jumps in Vancouver [at the 2010 Olympics]."
With such a glorious career, it’s really hard to pinpoint breakthrough moments or wins that are more representative than others of what Cooper brought to the sport. Not even she could identify one in particular, recognising that she was blessed with a career that took her around the world, giving her the opportunity to meet great people and have amazing experiences.
"I cherished every moment I had as an aerial skier. I raised the bar, I raised expectations. I won, I lost and I learnt. The best part of my career is what it taught me: that what sport gives you as a person is better than any medal or moment you have on the podium."
Jacqui Cooper's career is not only filled with medals, but also with many ‘first times’ and groundbreaking moments for the sport, like when she became the first woman to land triple jumps in competition. In 2010, she became the first Australian woman to compete at five Olympic Games, despite her relationship with the Olympics being a complicated one.
"It was a bit of a love/hate relationship, to be honest," she confessed. "I made my first Olympic team in 1994, when I was twenty years old. I didn't even know what the Olympics were, because I had started in the sport when aerial skiing was not an event in the Olympic programme. Back then it was all about becoming a World Champion, so my biggest concern at those Olympics was probably meeting the Jamaican bobsled team! It was all very different.
"Then four years passed and by the time I got to Nagano 1998 I was quite competitive. I could do twisting triple somersaults and there was a real chance that I could win a medal."
Unfortunately for Cooper, that was not in the cards. A very strong Australian team ended up underperforming on the big stage, with then reigning World Champion Kirstie Marshall placing 14th and Cooper finishing 23rd - the worst Olympic result of her career.
Four years later, Cooper had another go at an Olympic medal in Salt Lake City. In those four years between Nagano and Salt Lake City Cooper’s career had possibly reached its peak. She had won three consecutive FIS Freestyle overall crystal globes (1999-2001) and the 1999 World Championships title, making her one of the favourites for the Olympic gold.
"Then I blew my knee out, two days before the Olympics. That was really hard because I had almost never missed an event in my entire career. Whether it was injury, or sickness, or a ski bag got lost, I always showed up. So that was hard."
With Cooper sidelined by her injury, another outstanding Australian aerial skier rose to the occasion and took home the title. In Salt Lake City, Alisa Camplin became the second ever winter Olympic Champion for Australia. Despite her own disappointment, Cooper celebrated her teammate’s victory and recognised the historical significance of that amazing result.
"That win was fantastic also because it took a lot of pressure off the aerial skiing programme. Everyone had invested so much money in the programme and we'd always fallen short. Alisa's gold gave us the opportunity to keep growing the sport," she said.
Between the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City and those held in Torino in 2006, Cooper had to go through multiple surgeries, including a knee reconstruction, an elbow reconstruction and a shoulder reconstruction. She still managed to show up at the Games and, in the Olympic semi-final, she set a world record and an Olympic record, something which was almost unbelievable at that point of her career and after so many injuries.
"It was the best jumping I had technically ever done, and it was on the Olympic stage!" she said. After such a promising display, Cooper felt finally ready for a medal, until the next day the fog came in. Jumping in difficult conditions, Cooper only managed to place eighth in the finals.
"I got lost in the fog," she said.
At 33 years of age, with multiple World Cup titles and a World Championships gold already adorning her trophy cabinet, almost everyone thought Jacqui Cooper was ready to retire, questioning whether she had anything left in the tank. But Cooper kept pushing on to Vancouver 2010, winning another two aerial crystal globes in 2007 and 2008 - for a career total of five. To this day, she is still the athlete with the most discipline World Cup titles in the history of aerial skiing.
Once again, Cooper's path to the Vancouver Olympics was plagued by injuries. In the lead up to the Games she dislocated her hip and sustained pelvic fractures, which seriously limited her preparation.
"I came into Vancouver with very little momentum, but I pulled a rabbit out of the hat by jumping triple somersaults and finishing in fifth place. I actually believe it's my greatest performance of all time. It wasn't a win, but the effort behind it was my greatest.
"So my Olympic experience is very colourful, with a lot of ups and downs, but it's actually one that I wouldn't change," she said.
An athlete with Jacqui Cooper's longevity had the opportunity to witness first hand the changes undergone by the discipline, going from a young exciting sport making its debut on the Olympic program in 1994 to becoming one of the highlights of the Winter Games.
"Aerial skiing has changed so much from the late Eighties until now," she said. "The coaches were weekenders, they were just passionate people who loved seeing kids doing somersaults on snow and tried to further the sport. Fast-forward 20 years and everything has evolved, from technology to skill development, coaching and support facilities.
"But the evolution of aerial skiing in Australia happened because we had great people,” Cooper said.
“That meant we could get more funding and changes could be made to further progress the sport and increase the level of the programme. We had Kirstie Marshall - a World Champion. Then we had Alisa Camplin, then Lydia [Lassila, 2010 Olympic Champion]. Now we've got Danielle Scott and Laura Peel. In between there have also been other athletes, who were great and also won World Cup medals. We wouldn't have been able to progress if we had not all played our own part in the legacy of that time."
Speaking about the evolution of aerials training over the last three decades, thoughts naturally go to the newly established Geoff Henke Olympic Winter Training Centre in Brisbane, a water jump which will give Australian athletes the opportunity to train all-year-round on home soil. Cooper is really excited for the opportunities that the new facility provides to Australian athletes.
"I have been waiting for this moment since I started talking about water jumps in Australia with Geoff Lipshut in 2001,” she said.
"As an athlete, I spent close to 10 months a year overseas - which means you're basically putting your life in Australia on hold, and that's tough to do. It has an impact on relationships, on job opportunities, on education. That has been a big disadvantage for athletes.
"Having the water jumps means that our athletes can go on with their life. I think their careers will lengthen because they won't have to make those difficult choices about having to study, starting a family or buying a house.
"So it's all very exciting. I've actually got my wetsuit out. I even got my skis out. I want to have a go!" she said.
After retiring from competitive skiing, Cooper has been very active, becoming a much-in-demand motivational speaker, a business owner, an author and an entrepreneur. Her transition to life after skiing was a very successful one, albeit challenging, especially at the beginning.
"I was nervous taking off my one-piece ski suit for the last time. I felt quite vulnerable. I wasn't sure what else Jacqui Cooper could do. It was really nice to realise that the only thing that changed was me taking off the suit.
"Retiring from sport has been an awakening. I love connecting and communicating with people. I realised that I was resilient. I could overcome adversity. I could set goals and I could work with others. I was coachable and I was able to process feedback. All of those things I was able to take from aerial skiing and place them in my normal life, and that served me well."
Such a valuable toolbox, that Jacqui Cooper was able to fill in over twenty years of success on the snow, also helped her build an amazing family, with her husband Mario and her three children.
"Parenting is a lot like aerial skiing. There are highs and lows. Hard work is needed and dedication is essential. The reward comes in the gratifying feeling of knowing that you are making an impact," she said.