Jacqueline Cooper (born 6 January 1973) is an Australian motivational speaker and retired

freestyle skier Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and ...

Skiing career

Cooper started skiing aerials at age 16 and was on the Australian team for 20 years. During her career she had many injuries, including a shattered knee, elbow, hip, shoulder and a broken back. She finished in sixteenth place at the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 17. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held fro ...

and crashed out of the qualification round at the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

. At the Salt Lake Winter Games in 2002, the three-time world champion was a favourite to win gold, but a training accident the week before those games shattered her knee. Teammate

Alisa Camplin Alisa Peta Camplin, (born 10 November 1974) is an Australian aerial skier who won gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics, the second ever winter Olympic gold medal for Australia. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Camplin finished third to receive a bronz ...

would win the gold for Australia. Cooper made her comeback at the 2004 Mount Buller World Aerials, two and a half years after her Salt Lake accident. She won the silver behind fellow Australian Lydia Lassila (née Ierodiaconou). After having a long time off competition, she performed double somersaults, rather than her trademark triples. At the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second ...

, Cooper entered the final as the favourite, having recorded a world record 213.56 in the qualification round, but she crashed on both jumps. Cooper won 24 World Cup gold medals, claiming her fifth World Cup title in Inawashiro, Japan. In 2009 Cooper was appointed Company Ambassador for La Trobe Financial. Cooper was selected for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first Australian woman to make five Olympic teams, summer or winter.AUSOlympicTeam Twitter feed
/ref> She finished fifth in that competition. Fellow Australian Lydia Lassila took the gold medal.ABC Online
/ref>

Personal life

Cooper is the mother of three. Her eldest daughter was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease when at two years old. Cooper is a volunteer ambassador for Coeliac Victoria & Tasmania.Coeliac Victoria & Tasmania
"CVT Ambassadors: Jacqui Cooper"
Retrieved on 16 February 2018.

References

External links

Jacqui Cooper official website
Australian female freestyle skiers Living people 1973 births Olympic freestyle skiers of Australia Freestyle skiers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Sportswomen from Victoria (Australia) Skiers from Melbourne People educated at Firbank Girls' Grammar School {{Australia-freestyle-skiing-bio-stub