Kirstie's Story
A former gymnast, Kirstie Marshall paved the way for Australian women in aerial skiing, the nation’s most successful Winter Olympic sport. In her 10-year long career, she won an astounding 41 World Cup medals from 1989 to 1998, of which 17 were gold. She finished third on points in the 1990 World Cup season, second in 1991 and took the World Cup title in 1992.
Marshall represented Australia at the Winter Olympics in 1994 Lillehammer and 1998 Nagano. In 1993 she was sidelined with the first of 12 knee operations but returned to competition for the 1994 Olympics, at which she was the Australian Team flagbearer. After qualifying in first place for the final, she was hampered by her knee injury and finished sixth. At the 1992 Albertville Games, Marshall also contested the aerials in a demonstration event, coming third.
In 1997, Marshall took out the title at the World Championships in Nagano (she also won bronze in 1995) - the first Australian to hold a world title in any winter sport, and setting a new world points record for the event. A year later she secured her 17th World Cup victory, equalling the record of Canada's Marie Claud Asselin for the greatest number of World Cup victories in a career.
At the Nagano 1998 Games Marshall finished 14th and failed to make the final. She then suffered further injury and retired from the sport.
After retiring, Marshall launched a successful career in state politics, elected as the Labor candidate in the Victorian state seat of Forest Hill in 2002, a seat she held until 2010.
