Aerial skier Laura Peel has won the final World Cup event of the season with a stunning performance on the 2026 Olympic course in Livigno, Italy to end the season as the number one ranked athlete in the world.
It's her fifth World Cup victory of the season, the 14th of her career and Laura claims her third FIS World Cup Crystal Globe for finishing the season as the world's top ranked women's aerial skier.
Australian female aerial skiers have now amassed a total of 14 Crystal Globes over the past 33 years. Laura has the second-highest total among Australians with three, trailing only the legendary Jacqui Cooper, who has five. Other winners include Kirstie Marshall, Alisa Camplin, Lydia Lassila, and Danielle Scott.
Heading into today, Laura had a near unbeatable lead in the standings and only needed to finish 12th or better to secure the title, leading Chinese skier Mengtao Xu by 78 points. Laura made sure of that by qualifying for the 12-woman final in second place. Joining Laura in the finals were Airleigh Frigo in fifth, Abbey Willcox seventh and Danielle Scott in 10th. Just missing the finals by one place was Elise Coleiro in 13th and in the men’s event Reilly Flanagan was 17th.
Laura then performed a lay-full-full double twisting triple back somersault in the first round of finals to advance to the top six super-final in second place on 91.83 points. Just missing out on the medal round was Abbey Willcox in seventh, Airleigh Frigo ninth and Danielle Scott 11th.
In the super-final Laura upped her degree of difficulty scoring an impressive 112.90 points for her spectacular full-full-full triple twisting triple back somersault in one of her best jumps of the season. Second place went to Xu of China on 105.17 and her teammate Meiting Chen was third on 91.44.
“I am so stoked, honestly I couldn’t be happier, it’s globe number three, I don’t think it gets any easier,” Laura, the 35-year-old from Canberra said.
“That’s day four on this site now. I’ve got to say I really like it. It’s been working well for me, I’ve been jumping well. That’s a relief and I’m so excited to come back here for the Olympics.”
Laura finished the season first with 542 points, 98 clear of Xu on 444 and Danielle was third on 368, it is the sixth time Danielle has placed in the top three on the final season rankings. Abbey and Airleigh both had the highest rankings of their careers in fifth and 10th places respectively.
The season will now conclude with the prestigious FIS World Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland, aerial skiing qualifications are on March 29 and finals March 30.
