Megan Nick ended a three-year victory drought for the U.S. women’s aerials program, winning her first World Cup event in negative-10-degree weather Yaroslavl, Russia, on Sunday.
Nick, 24, landed a full double full for the first time in competition to beat a field that included the last two Olympic champions — Belarusians Alla Tsuper and Hanna Huskova — and the reigning World Cup season champion Laura Peel of Australia.
“My goal this season was to bring the double-out to snow and compete it,” Nick said, according to U.S. Ski and Snowboard. “Vlad [U.S. head coach Vladimir Lebedev] and I have been working on getting higher quality DD [degree of difficulty] jumps.”
The last U.S. woman to win an aerials World Cup was Kiley McKinnon in January 2018.
Nick previously finished second in a pair of World Cups last season.
She was joined on the podium Sunday by 17-year-old countrywoman Kaila Kuhn, whose third place was her best-career World Cup finish.
Three-time Olympian Ashley Caldwell and Megan Smallhouse were fifth and sixth for the U.S. team. Caldwell finished second in a World Cup in Yaroslavl on Saturday.
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