Acrobatic Australian aerial skier David Morris has claimed the nation’s first ever podium finish in the men’s aerial skiing competition by winning silver at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park in Sochi overnight, just reward for remaining decisive under pressure and sticking to his game plan of closing his eyes and waiting for the ground to come up.
The 29 year old Australian’s second place finish takes the green and gold’s medal tally to three following snowboarder Torah Bright’s silver medal in the women’s halfpipe event and skier Lydia Lassila’s bronze medal in the freestyle aerials.
“I was actually surprised I made it in (the final) and the in last one (jump) I wasn’t super confident doing that skill; basically I just closed my eyes and waited for the ground to come,” Morris said. “Strategically that was the right move and I was questioning at the time: do we really want to do this.”
Morris was joined on the podium by gold medal winner Anton Kushnir from Belarus with a score of 134.50 and by bronze medal winner Zongyan Jia from China with a score of 95.06. Morris scored 110.41.
Photo by Cameron Spencer for Getty Images Sport
