The aerial skiing career of little-known Australian competitor Shannon Leotta looks to be over after a training injury in preparation for the Alpine Exposure World Aerials.
Leotta, 32, was one of few women to master a triple somersault on snow, a maneouvre also performed at a higher level by three time World Cup champion Jacqui Cooper.
Her best performance through eight World Cup seasons was ninth place at the Mt Buller aerials in 2000.
Australian team head coach Todd Ossian said Leotta had a suspected ligament tear in an already reconstructed knee after a bad fall during a training session at Mt Buller on Wednesday. Leotta, from New South Wales, is set to undergo an MRI-scan later this week.
Ossian said she put in her best jumps in preparation for the opening World Cup at Mt Buller this weekend but the injury would most likely result in another reconstruction.
``This could be the end of her career,’’ Ossian said.
Ossian said Leotta, based at Salt Lake City with her fiancé Frank Bare, an aerials coach with the Swiss, French and Czech teams, planned to go through rehabilitation next year to make a brief comeback.
``She wants to do water jumps at Park City in Utah, so that she doesn’t go out with the last jump of her career being her crash,’’ Ossian said.