Megan Nick Earns First Career Aerials World Cup Win At Yaroslavl, Russia

Megan Nick competes in Women's Aerials Qualifications during the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup 2019 at the Lake Placid Ski Jumping Complex on Jan. 19, 2019 in Lake Placid, New York. 

Things just keep getting better for aerials skier Megan Nick — after earning her first two world cup podiums in the 2019-20 season, the 24-year-old from Shelburne, Vermont, scored her first world cup win Sunday in Yaroslavl, Russia.
She eked out the win by .06 points over 2014 Olympic gold medalist Alla Tsuper of Belarus, while U.S. teammate Kaila Kuhn also landed on the podium in third. It was a strong performance all around for Team USA, as Olympian Ashley Caldwell (fifth), Megan Smallhouse (sixth) and Dani Loeb (tenth) all finished in the top 10. 
Nick, a member of the national team since 2018, grew up competing in gymnastics, which she believes has helped her develop her flips and twists in the air. Nick earned her first world cup podium with a second-place finish in Deer Valley, Utah, in February 2020. The University of Utah alum then added another in Kazakhstan later that month, and ultimately finished fourth in the aerials world cup standings. With the win, Nick moves up into the top five in the 2020-21 standings with five aerials events remaining on the calendar.
Australia’s Laura Peel, the reigning world cup champion who had won both aerials events thus far this season, finished a distant 21st, allowing Kuhn to move up to second and Caldwell to move into third into the standings. Caldwell later teamed up with U.S. men Eric Loughran and Justin Schoenfeld to take third place in the mixed team event, which will make its Olympic debut in 2022.