Freestyle Skiing

VANCOUVER - Steve Omischl is one of the world's great freestyle aerialists with a list of accomplishments that includes pretty much everything - except an Olympic gold medal.

The gold may come at the 2010 Winter Games, where Cypress Mountain will the be the site of the aerials event, and where he finished first last month at a World Cup stop on the mountain.

His coach Daniel Murphy and close friend and teammate Warren Shouldice agree that Omischl should take the gold in what will be his final Olympics.

"I think Steve is the man to beat (in 2010),'' says Shouldice, also one of Canada's top aerialists. "He's won four overall World Cup Grand Prix. He's really owned the podium in all the major events with the exception of the Olympics so I think that's going to be the extra motivation.''

Omischl is driven with a work ethic aimed at being the best, says Murphy, and he'll likely be even better in February when the world is watching.

Murphy's already warning competitors.

"He's one of the few guys who will come with a higher degree of difficulty for the Games, the triple back with five twists.

"There are not many guys who will do that. I predict there may be three or four guys who will try that in 2010 and Steve will be one of them.''

Omischl, 31, was born in North Bay, Ont., and was hooked on skiing at an early age.

"My mom taught me to ski when I was three years old,'' Omischl said during a recent interview while training at Cypress. "My parents were from Austria so skiing was important to them as children and they passed it on to me.''

His idols are freestylers who put aerials and moguls on the sporting map in Canada: Jean-Luc Brassard, a gold medallist in moguls at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, and Jean-Marc Rozon, who won gold in aerials when it was a demonstration sport in Calgary in 1988.

"They were true champions and I always looked up to their examples.''

The dedication and desire of his other idol - golfer Tiger Woods - has also played a huge role in Omischl's development.

"He puts himself into a position to win every week and that's all I'm trying to do as an athlete.''

The freestyle team has had a great 2008-09 season, buoying some who feel the team will peak for 2010 and worrying others who wonder if they are peaking too soon.

"It may be a shot in the arm that we're moving in the right direction but it doesn't mean anything for next year,'' says Omischl, "because tomorrow's another day and next year's another season.''

Aerials is not a sport for the faint of heart.

Competitors ski down a slope into a steep ramp that rockets them high into the air, where they perform acrobatics and gymnastics before landing on an even steeper slope.

It's difficult, dangerous, and impossible for the masses to truly appreciate - because most will never experience it.

"It's a fringe sport and it's an issue for aerials because nobody can do it,'' says Omischl. "Nobody has an appreciation for how difficult it is.

"Anyone can pick up a tennis racket and hit a ball and appreciate how good (Roger) Federer is. Nobody can click on a pair of skis and do a couple backflips and appreciate how good the guys on the World Cup aerials tour are.''

Omischl, who now lives in Kelowna, B.C., has a life outside of skiing, and a goal when he leaves the sport.

He golfs and mountain bikes in the summer and never goes far without his video camera. He worked for Bell Canada during the Beijing Olympics last summer doing a feature called 16 Days in Beijing.

"It was just doing fun features around the Games and I wouldn't mind getting into the production side of television once I'm done with sport,'' says Omischl.

A career in sports journalism may be in the future.

"I would love to cover sports one day, especially amateur sports in Canada.''

His other passions are squash, golf, hockey and surfing, which is something he and Shouldice look forward to when the long season is over.

"Every year after we're done we try to plan a surf trip down to Central America and we've done that the last few years,'' says Shouldice.

Omischl has made it clear 2010 will be his final Olympics, but Murphy isn't so sure he'll hang up the skis completely.

"This is probably his last Games but maybe he'll take a what they call a victory lap a year after because you work so hard,'' says Murphy. "At his level he could work a lot less and still have a very good year. He could compete and have fun and be less stressed but probably that would be it.''