New Aussie ski star Lydia Lassila opens up to Helen Whitaker about her next big challenge – finding time to start a family with her husband.
After her incredible performance in Vancouver to win gold in the freestyle skiing aerials, Lydia Lassila has returned home to Australia a star, her name in the headlines … and her face on a postage stamp!
The 28-year-old has already set her sights on defending her title at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. But before that, there is one small matter to attend to.
“We would love to have a family,” exclaims Lydia, snuggling up to her husband, champion Finnish skier Lauri Lassila, 33, at home in Diggers Rest, north-west of Melbourne.
“It’s difficult for female athletes, because you have to decide. I don’t want to leave it too late. It’s something we both want, so who knows? We may be able to squeeze a family in!”
With Lydia and Lauri globetrotting between Australia and Finland, where he works as an assistant coach to the Finnish national ski team, it’ll be a tough ask, but Lydia isn’t afraid of a challenge and plans to jump into motherhood with both feet.
“We’ll just transplant between Finland and Australia and the grandparents can take care of them,” she laughs. “They’d love that too!”
She met Lauri in 2000, during her first year as an aerial skier, and he has supported her on and off the slopes during a run of injuries that hampered her journey to Olympic triumph.
Their schedules have rarely seen them spend more than three months together at a time, but they insist this has kept the romance alive.
“It’s hard to be separated, but every time you come back from those breaks it’s like the first day again!” Lydia says, conceding it was fantastic to spend more time together during an injury recovery period in 2006-2007.
It was around this time, she remembers, that Lauri popped the question.
“I had the proposal planned for Mother’s Day,” he says, taking up the story. “Then we went to a massive family gathering, so the plan went out the window! But I already had the ring, so one day she came back from the surgeon and was crying because of some setbacks with her injured knee. I thought, ‘OK, it’s now or never.’”
For the full story see this week’s Woman’s Day, on sale March 8, 2010.
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