Women's Olympic aerial ski team hampered as Qld ditches training facility

Updated

Winter Olympics officials say the number two world ranking of the Australian women's aerial ski team is under threat, because the Queensland Government stopped the construction of a dedicated training facility.

The previous state and federal Labor governments promised $6.1 million to build a world-class aerial water jump pool at the Sleeman Sports Complex in Brisbane's east.

The athletes were preparing to move to Brisbane last year, when the Newman Government halted the project just before the 36-metre high jump ramps were installed.

The Olympic Winter Institute of Australia's chef de mission, Ian Chesterman, says the decision forced gold medallist Lydia Lassila to move to Switzerland to prepare for the games.

"It's been particularly hard for Lydia Lassila, who is a mother now, and who was looking forward very much to train at home and train to compete at home," he said.

The Queensland Premier and Sports Minister issued a statement in response to questions about the facility.

"This is a luxury item the people of Queensland simply cannot afford, particularly given the $80 billion debt left by the previous Labor government," the statement said.

The only purpose-built aerial skiing water jump facility in Australia opened in 1990 at Wandin, east of Melbourne.

It looks more like a farm dam than an Olympic training facility.

Most of the women's aerial ski team trained there briefly before heading Utah.

Former Australian Olympic serial skier Jacqui Cooper says training conditions do not get much tougher than that.

"You might come up with an ear infection or a leech in your ear," she said.

"While we don't have our own facilities we'll always be at the mercy of other teams allowing us to train there."

Olympic Winter Institute of Australia chief executive officer Geoff Lipshut says the Sleeman Sports Complex facility would have given our athletes a much greater chance of success in Russia.

"It's all about Russia. It's all about us having a chance with our athletes in Russia and our chances aren't as good as they should have been," Mr Lipshut said.

"In terms of us maintaining our ranking and being a threat to China, it gets harder and harder."

The Winter Olympic Institute is now in talks with the New South Wales Government to build a new training facility at Lennox Head.

Topics: winter-olympics, ski-jumping, brisbane-4000, wandin-north-3139

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