Danielle Scott has won a superb silver medal in the women's aerials event at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics.
It is Australia's sixth medal of these Winter Olympic Games and the first in aerials for an Australian since Lydia Lassila's bronze and David Morris's silver in 2014.
It is also 24 years to the day since chef de mission Alisa Camplin-Warner won her aerials gold in Salt Lake City, becoming Australia's first female Winter Olympic champion.
Scott performed an immaculate back Full-Full-Full in the final and, although the landing did not quite match that level of excellence, it was still enough to sneak past Chinese pair Shao Qi (101.90) and Kong Fanyu (101.31) into second with a score of 102.17.
Defending champion Xu Mengtao won gold with a score of 112.90.
"Honestly, I just put my heart out there," Scott said.
"I left everything out there. I jumped the way I wanted to and I'm so grateful for my team around me to get me to that point.
"This just means everything."
Weather had compressed the competition into a single day, but the extra stress of morning qualifying and afternoon finals did not seem to bother Australia's skiers one bit.
Scott scored 99.59 in the first jump of the morning session to qualify straight through to the top 12 final in second place, with Abbey Willcox joining her as ninth-best qualifier.
Late entrant Sidney Stephens finished 15th and Airleigh Frigo finished 22nd on their debuts.
After an hour's break, Scott showed just how on form she was in the first round of the final, landing a stunning Full-Full-Full, scoring her a whopping 117.19 — a new personal best score — to qualify best for the top-six shootout.
Abbey Willcox was eighth best after the first final with an 88.83 for her back double Full-Full, and did not improve with her second to finish 10th.
As the tension ramped up in the super final, Shao Qi opened things off with a superb back Lay-Full-Full to score 101.90.
American Winter Vinecki was the first to attempt a back Full-Full-Full but did not stick the landing, slapping her back down to be scored 90.56.
The third athlete to jump, Mengtao, landed a magical back Full-Full-Full to take the lead with an insurmountable score of 112.90.
The second of the Americans in the final, Kaila Kuhn, also could not land her back Full-Full-Full, 99.16 her score to sit third.
Fanyu was also a little shaky on the landing but managed to hold it well and was rewarded with a score of 101.31 to bump Kuhn out of the medals.
But then Scott landed her effort to earn her a first Winter Olympic medal in her fourth Games appearance.
