Nicole Parks (born 11 July 1992) is an Australian

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 ...

. She competed at the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

, where she qualified for the moguls finals, retired from competition skiing in 2017, and is now a coach.

Family

Nicole Parks was born on 11 July 1992 in

Cooma Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega with the Riverina. At the , Cooma had a po ...

, a town in the south of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. Her father, Andrew Parks, is Australian and a skier who loved to ski moguls. Her mother, Josephine Buhagiar, was originally from Ghajnsielem, which is a municipality on the southeastern coast of the island of

Gozo Gozo (, ), Maltese: ''Għawdex'' () and in antiquity known as Gaulos ( xpu, 𐤂𐤅𐤋, ; grc, Γαῦλος, Gaúlos), is an island in the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Republic of Malta. After t ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. At the time of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Parks lived in

Jindabyne Jindabyne () is a town in south-east New South Wales, Australia that overlooks Lake Jindabyne near the Snowy Mountains, in Snowy Monaro Regional Council. It is a popular holiday destination year round, especially in winter. This is due to its p ...

, New South Wales.

Skiing before Sochi

Nicole Parks' parents enrolled her in the Winter Sports Club Program when she was seven years old. At seventeen, she competed in her first World Cup, and came 31st. This was one place too low to compete in the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

in Vancouver. In February 2011, Parks did not finish the course when she competed in the women's moguls qualifications for the World Ski Championships at Deer Valley (USA). She came 19th in the qualifications for the dual moguls. In March 2013, Parks came 18th in the women's moguls qualifications for the World Ski Championships at Myrkdalen-Voss (Norway), and came 18th in the final. In the dual moguls, she came 16th in the qualifications, and 16th in the first round of the finals.

2014 Winter Olympics

Parks landed heavily and fell on a jump in practice at the

Rosa Khutor Extreme Park The Rosa Khutor Extreme Park (''Russian'': Роза Хутор) under license from The Extreme Sports Company and part of the Extreme Hotel, Sochi development, is a skiing venue located west of the Rosa Khutor plateau in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. ...

in Krasnaya Polyana near Sochi (Russia) on Tuesday 4 February 2014, breaking the lenses of her sports glasses, but was not hurt. Parks said: "I just landed a bit forward and caught an edge that was a bit soft. One ski went one way and I rolled over. Everyone does that at least once in training. I broke my lenses but I have plenty of them. I came prepared." There were several competitors in different sports who were injured on the site. She participated in the ladies' moguls event over three rounds: *Parks came 17th out of 30 skiers in the first qualification round on Thursday 6 February 2014, the day before the opening ceremony for the games. The top ten qualified for the final. *Parks came 8th out of 20 in the second qualification round on Saturday 8 February 2014. Again, the top ten qualified for the final. *Parks came 15th out of 20 in the first round of the final on Saturday 8 February 2014. Only the top 12 qualified for the second round of the final.

Skiing after Sochi

In January 2015, Parks came 23rd in the first round of qualifications for the World Ski Championships at

Kreischberg Kreischberg is an Austrian ski resort in Styria, Austria. The area includes the adjacent Rosenkranzhöhe and offers 40 kilometres of slopes altogether. In December 2013, Kreischberg was considered the first 10-seater gondola in Styria. In recent ye ...

(Austria). But Parks did not finish the course in the second round of qualifications, and so came 29th overall. In early 2015, Parks injured her knee. She suffered an

anterior cruciate ligament injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during inju ...

, tore her meniscus, and fractured her

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

and

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...

. She managed to compete in the latter end of the 2015/16 World Cup competition.

Coach

Parks competed as a mogul skier for 13 years, before she retired in 2017 to become a coach. In 2022, Parks was one of 31 coaches in different sports given a paid two-year apprenticeship as part of the inaugural ''National Generation 2032 Coach Program'' in preparation for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

References

External links

* 1992 births Living people Freestyle skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Australian female freestyle skiers Olympic freestyle skiers for Australia People from Cooma Sportswomen from New South Wales {{Australia-freestyle-skiing-bio-stub