This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Park City • Ashley Caldwell understands the dilemma she puts herself in. If the 22-year-old American aerials star is to continue to push the envelope by attempting triple backflips — and polish the trick — in World Cup competitions, there are going to be good days and bad days.
In Thursday morning's aerials final, she entered as the No. 1 overall seed. But her execution on the triple backflip wasn't what it needed to be. The World Cup leader crashed, finishing 11th overall. Luckily for Caldwell, there was another aerials event a day later.
Her triple-full backflip in the women's super final Friday was close to perfect, but the velocity of her flips mid-air forced the Ashburn, Va., native to compensate by stretching her body out more to regain control. In doing so, her rotation to the landing wasn't clean enough. Caldwell had what she described as a pretty deep landing, forced to put down a single finger to the snow to help her balance.
"Which cost me the win," she said.
But it was enough for a bronze medal in the Visa Freestyle World Cup Friday at Deer Valley Resort, a major improvement from Thursday's wreck that left the No. 1 aerialist in the world searching for a shot at redemption.
"I'm trying to increase my consistency doing triples; decrease the risk, increase the reward," Caldwell said. "The more consistent I am, more likely it'll be that I land on the podium."
China's Xin Zhang won the women's event with a score of 99.40. She had a slightly cleaner landing of the attempted double-full-full backflip than Australia's Danielle Scott, who landed the same trick, but finished with a 97.29 and in second place.
Caldwell, who had a 96.79, said she takes pride in being a female athlete who attempts more dangerous, difficult tricks. It's helped her to three podiums this World Cup season. The triple fulls attempted this weekend were the first she's tried in competition since the World Cup stop in Beijing Dec. 19-20.
"I don't like backing down," she said. "I like doing triple backflips. It can be scary, it can be challenging; I love the reward, I love the excitement and I like challenging myself and the sport."
Scott's second-place finish wrapped up a successful weekend for the 25-year-old Aussie who calls Park City "her second home." On Thursday, she finished fourth.
Much of the Australian aerials team trains at the Utah Olympic Park every summer, which made her World Cup silver medal Friday night a touch sweeter.
"It's always nice coming here because the atmosphere is incredible," she said.
Russia's Petr Medulich won the men's aerial super final by earning a 128.05. Ukraine's Oleksandr Abramenko and Japan's Naoya Tabara finished second and third, respectively. American Alex Bowen qualified fifth for the super final, but couldn't stick his landing on his final jump. Bowen finished sixth.
Twitter: @chriskamrani —
VISA Freestyle International World Cup
At Deer Valley, Park City
Women's mogul final:
1. Xin Zhang, CHN, 99.40
2. Danielle Scott, AUS, 97.29
3. Ashley Caldwell, USA, 96.79
Men's mogul final:
1. Petr Medulich, RUS, 128.05
2. Oleksandr Abramenko, UKR, 124.89
3. Naoya Tabara, 123.53
Saturday's schedule » Men's and women's dual moguls final, 7 to 8:20 p.m.