18-year-old Liz Lemley enters her fourth World Cup season fresh off a double-gold performance at the 2024 Youth Olympic Games
Mogul ski sensation Liz Lemley is coming into the 2024-2025 World Cup season with a new (sort of) coach, revamped tricks and enhanced fitness. One thing has stayed the same, though: the vision.
"My ultimate goal is to go to the 2026 Olympics," Lemley said, pausing briefly before adding, "And win."
The Ski and Snowboard Club Vail product is coming off a historic 2024 campaign, which saw her snag double-gold at the Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, South Korea. But the 18-year-old slid from fifth in the overall World Cup standings in 2023 -- when she accrued three-career podiums, including her first-career win -- to 10th in 2024.
"I think I had three pretty awesome moments, and the rest of the season was pretty 'meh,'" Lemley said. She's proud of her silver at the Ruka opener, duals bronze in Chiesa in Valmalenco and of course, victories in both the individual and team mogul events in South Korea. To be fair, one reason for Lemley's drop in the standings was because she missed a World Cup to compete at the latter event. Still, she ended the year somewhat unsatisfied.
"Yeah, missing two World Cups on the circuit is going to bring me down, but I also don't think I was skiing that great," she said. "I just wasn't feeling my jumping and I think that reflected on my overall confidence ... I wasn't able to portray the person I wanted to be."
When Lemley returned to Vail mid-season, she started working with SSCV moguls program director John Dowling. The veteran coach was able to give Lemley the individualized attention she wasn't receiving on a stacked U.S. roster, and the progress was noticeable. Dowling advised his former pupil to hire a private coach moving forward. Then he had an epiphany.
"The more I thought of it, if anyone else had that job, I would have been really jealous of it," he said with a chuckle. After discussing logistics and earning the approval of Matt Gnoza, U.S. Ski Team freestyle sport director, Dowling signed on to coach Lemley privately in May. He'll be taking a two-year sabbatical from his position as mogul program director at SSCV -- "with the idea that we're trying to make a push towards the Olympics," he said.
Dowling first saw Lemley ski when the Ohio-born, Steamboat Springs-raised 7-year-old showed up for a spring camp in Vail more than a decade ago. What jumped out to him -- pun intended -- was her aerial ability. The youngster, who said she set her sights on Olympic gold ever since she learned who 2010 gold medalist Hannah Kearney was, popped off a bump into a full 90-degree twister.
"She had that aerial ease and ability and freedom, and that's really translated into her career every step of the way," Dowling said. "She's kind of always been a step ahead of the game."
While Dowling hesitates to proclaim Lemley as the most talented skier he's ever worked with, he said she is probably the most naturally composed. At her World Cup debut in Tremblant, Canada on Jan. 7, he remembers watching the 15-year-old slide into the icy gate with a huge smile.
"(She) was right at home in that competition environment," Dowling said. "So, I think the combination of the talent and the competitive ability ... she's built for it."
Lemley placed fourth in her debut, wowing judges with a cork 7 to a cork grab. The following weekend, she was the top-placing American at one of the final Olympic qualifying events in Deer Valley. But since that rookie season -- where she ended up 10th in the overall standings despite starting at the midway point -- Lemley hasn't revisited a similarly high degree of difficulty tricks. Last year, she felt she didn't get the individualized attention necessary for her to have the confidence to implement harder aerial packages. Suffice it say: with five American athletes finishing in the top-7 in the overall standings last year, the U.S. coaching staff was spread a little thin.
"I kind of just made the decision myself to be like, well, I don't know about this, so I'm just going to play it safe," Lemley explained. "And that's kind of what I did the entire season, which I want to change this year -- and am going to."
Dowling could see his former athlete's talents weren't being maximized as he watched from home.
"I was looking at Liz, what a force she is in the air, and thinking like, 'why aren't we capitalizing on that? Why aren't you pushing on that skill set?" Dowling said. "I thought I could help her play her strengths a little bit more."
Last year, Jakara Anthony ruled the women's mogul scene, winning 14 of 16 World Cup events. Dowling and Lemley broke down film over the off-season and noticed the Aussie's tactical use of a cork 7 mute top air, a move that allows the defending Olympic gold medalist to use a lower degree of difficulty at a higher speed on the bottom air. But copying her playbook isn't the only way to close the gap. Anthony is also a physical specimen.
"(She) is probably the most fit athlete on tour," Dowling said. The fitness component was something Lemley recognized as a weakness. Over the offseason, she's diligently trained in three-day cycles, skiing in the mornings and rotating between plyometric, weight and circuits in the afternoon. After a rest day, she repeats the regimen.
The team has also amped up the aerial package, traveling to Austria and France for a month in August and spending another five weeks on-snow in Chile in September and October. Lemley has developed her own cork 7 mute and is working on a 1080, which she hopes to employ later in the season. They've also implemented a flat spin with a Japan grab for duals.
"We've kind of revamped her air package and gone towards things naturally she gravitated to and had some instant success with," Dowling said.
Since she moved from Steamboat Springs as an 11-year-old -- to work with Dowling -- the coach's analytical approach has resonated with Lemley
"I picked up on all that technical jargon," she said. "He's very technical in the way he watches and coaches skiing. There's so much analysis going on on and off the hill. ...Outside him and I doing video review, he does so much more watching videos, creating ideas."
Dowling is also coaching Dylan Walczyk, who has joined Lemley at various camps. The 31-year-old paved his way to the 2022 Olympics despite not being named to the U.S. Ski Team; he also competed at the 2023 World Championship and finished 10th in the World Cup standings in 2023 and 17th last year.
"He's still one of the best turners on tour -- still competitive," Dowling said.
As he travels to each World Cup stop, Dowling will get an up close view of a few other SSCV alumni, including Tess Johnson and Kai Owens, who are coached by Josh Kober, Bryon Wilson and Steve Desovich.
"Those girls already have those relationships, so I'm not going to try to step on any toes with what they're doing," Dowling said. "We're kind of running parallel with them."
Lemley said the U.S. women's team is like "a pack."
"All the girls are very close," she said. "We all support each other."
While Anthony is the returning favorite, Perrine Laffont also returns to the World Cup tour, which kicks off in Ruka, Finland on Nov. 30. The 2018 Olympic gold medalist and double world champion from 2023 told FIS she took last year off to take a break from the mental and physical strain of competing. The combination of Laffont's return and the continued growth of the American team could result in more variety on the podium this winter.
"I think we're all coming in kind of curious, like, who is going to end up being on top," Lemley said.
The 18-year-old's main goal for her fourth season on the world's top stage is to finish in the top-3 in the overall standings. As long as Lemley is also the top American, that result would clinch an automatic Olympic spot.
"That just takes the pressure off," Lemley said. "I can go into the summer knowing I'm going to the Olympics and just prepare for that."
In approaching the season opener at the end of the month, Lemley has no intention of being conservative.
"I'm super excited and also a little bit nervous to see where I end up and see if all my hard work has paid off or not," she said before adding that she plans to show off her new cork 7 mute -- the same trick Anthony does.
"I plan to show the judges how much better mine is than Jakara's."