U.S. men’s aerials skiers had gone four years between World Cup victories. Now, they’ve won back-to-back events.
Chris Lillis prevailed in Kazakhstan on Friday, six days after Justin Schoenefeld ended the U.S.’ longest men’s victory drought since aerials became an Olympic medal sport in 1994.
Lillis, the 21-year-old brother of 2017 World champion Jon Lillis, landed a double full-full-full in the super final to score 121.27 points. Full results are here. He beat a field that included Schoenefeld (sixth place) and his older brother (14th) but lacked the world’s best from China and Russia.
“That was definitely one of the best jumps of my career,” Chris Lillis said. “Moving forward I’m feeling deadly.”
Chris has earned back-to-back World Cup podiums, his first top-three finishes since missing the PyeongChang Olympics with a torn ACL.
Also Friday, American Megan Nick finished second in the women’s event for her second runner-up this season. The last U.S. woman to win a World Cup was Kiley McKinnon on Jan. 6, 2018.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!
MORE: Olympic aerials champion retires to coach
Christopher Lillis is back to his winning ways, taking his first World Cup top spot since 2016 with his double full-full-full today in Oi Qaragai 👊 #aerials pic.twitter.com/kBNed4La62
— FISfreestyle (@FISfreestyle) February 28, 2020
