The women's freestyle skiing aerials kick off today at 8:45 a.m. today in Sochi, Russia, with 32-year-old Lydia Lassila looking to defend her gold medal from the Vancouver Games in 2010 in the women's aerials. For all the high-flying theatrics click this link to live stream for free.
While Lassila enters as a favorite on the merits of her previous Olympic showing, she's not invincible. At 32 this will be her fourth Olympics, and she has only previously medaled in 2010. This time around she will face strong competition from the Chinese, specifically from 23-year-old hotshot Xu Mengtao.
In 2010 Mengtao was impressive, notching the highest score of any competitor in her first round, but fell to sixth after crashing on her second run. Since then she's brought home a silver medal in 2011 at the World Championships, followed by a gold in 2013.
Meanwhile the Americans have had a very nice run in these Games on skis and snowboards. 20-year-old former gymnast Ashley Caldwell will be trying to continue that stretch, with an even loftier goal in mind as well, saying she wants to "close that gap between female and male aerials."
Despite limited experience compared to her counterparts, Caldwell made the final round in the Vancouver Games as a 16-year-old, and was the youngest American Olympian present.
"I think there will be more pressure," Caldwell said of the Sochi Games. "But I'm going to try to keep that element where I was happy and excited and just enjoying the Games."
Caldwell certainly isn't taking these Olympics for granted despite having a great deal of success out of the chute. Since the Vancouver showing she has torn both of her ACLs, which kept her away from most competitions. Still, she will be an interesting X-factor once the ladies begin leaping.
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