Laura Peel wins third crystal globe as overall FIS World Cup aerials champion
By Simon Smale
Topic:Freestyle Skiing
19m ago19 minutes agoThu 13 Mar 2025 at 8:29pm
Laura Peel celebrates by holding up her skis
Laura Peel celebrated qualifying for the final, knowing she had won the overall title. (Supplied: OWIA/Chris Hocking)
In short:
Laura Peel claimed the crystal globe as overall FIS World Cup winner for the third time in her career.
Peel also won the event at the Olympic Games site in Livigno to claim her fifth World Cup gold of the season.
What's next?
The Freestyle Ski World Championships takes place in St Moritz from March 29.
Australian Laura Peel has claimed her third crystal globe as overall FIS World Cup champion with a thrilling victory in the final event of the season at Livigo, Italy.
In the event which doubled as an Olympic test event, Peel claimed a stunning victory with her trademark back-full-full-full in a high quality final.
It is Peel's fifth FIS World Cup win of the year and 14th of her incredible career.
"I'm so stoked, I don't know what to say. Couldn't be better," three-time Olympian Peel said.
"It was pretty windy up there, it didn't seem to affect the speed too much, it's a mental game, I was just focused on the process."
Laura Peel holds up her hands
Laura Peel landed a stunning back-full-full-full to claim victory. (Getty Images: Matthias Hangst)
In a final in which three women attempted the high-risk, high-difficulty triple twisting, triple back somersault jump, Peel underlined her status as one of the favourites for the Winter Olympics aerials title on this same jump next year.
"That's day four on this site and I've got to say, I really like the site," Peel said.
"It's been working for me and that's a relief and I'm just really happy and so I'm excited to come back here."
The 35-year-old only needed to finish 12th or higher in the season finale at Livigno, Italy, to claim the overall title.
And on the jump that next year will host the Winter Olympic Games, Peel managed that comfortably, reaching the 12-woman final in second spot.
In tricky, gusting conditions during that 12-woman preliminary final, the two-time World Champion qualified second with a score of 91.83 behind Chen Meiting (94.65) and ahead of Olympic champion Xu Mengtao (90.22), with all three women attempting and landing doubles.
Defending World Cup champion Danielle Scott (11th), Airleigh Frigo (9th) and Abbey Willcox (7th) all missed the top six shoot out, while 20-year-old Elise Coleiro finished just outside the top 12, missing the final in 13th spot.
In the top six shoot out, the standard went up a notch.
Defending Olympic champion Xu Mengtao sett an extremely high bar with a phenomenal back-full-full-full, earning her a massive score of 105.17.
However, Peel didn't even blink, stomping the landing of her own back-full-full-full to earn a colossal score of 112.90.
Chen Meiting also attempted a back-full-full-full but could not nail the landing to end up third with a score of 91.44.
The victory gave Peel 542 points in the overall standings, comfortably ahead of Xu (444).
Scott finished third (368) and Abbey Willcox in fifth (259), just eight points behind Chen in fourth.
Having claimed a third FIS Crystal Globe, Peel is now in with a great chance to end her season on a high and claim a third World Championships title of her career in St Mortiz from March 29.
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Posted19m ago19 minutes agoThu 13 Mar 2025 at 8:29pm
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