Up, up and away

(Lake Placid, N.Y.) - It's a cool spring morning in Lake Placid, and five teenagers plus a freestyle world champion are jumping into a pool. Literally jumping, from way up high. Down a plastic-covered slope and up a ramp they go, launching into what looks like a backward swan dive. They land - smack! - in the pool, skis first. Yes, skis. In a 10-foot-deep swimming pool.

The air temperature is 52 degrees. The pool water - 50 degrees. The North Atlantic on the Maine coast is warmer than that.

Wearing dry-suits (the kind kayakers wear), life vests, helmets, and ski boots - but no goggles - the skiers don't seem to notice the cold. After they land in the water, they swim for the side, skis up behind them like a tail. They stand on an underwater platform near the pool's ladder, unclip their boots from the bindings, put their skis on the pool's deck, and climb out the ladder.

At the corner of the pool beside the ramp sits a red Coke machine. Atop this Coke machine stands Dmitriy Kavunov, a compact figure in gray sweat pants and running shoes. After each skier's jump, Kavunov hops down off the Coke machine and walks to the edge of the pool. He doesn't want to shout above the music - Marvin Gaye singing "I heard it through the grapevine" through a big black loudspeaker that faces the pool - or the air compressor that makes bubbles and breaks the water's surface tension, making for softer landings. It's one thing to jump feet first into a pool from 10-20 feet in the air. It's another to smack down skis first.

"Mac, when will you show straight body for me?" asks Kavunov, a former gymnast, geophysicist, and freestyle skier turned coach. From Uzbekistan, Kavunov's English is good, his accent is strong, but his tone is more fatherly than you might expect. He smiles when he addresses 14-year-old Mac Bohonnon, the smallest and youngest skier at the pool.

"Next time," promises Mac without smiling in return.

On Mac's next jump, his body looks straight. But Kavunov sees it differently. "Mac," he says, jumping off the Coke machine, "you promised me straight."

"It feels straight, but I guess not," replies Mac, looking like he might need a hug. Instead, Kavunov walks up to the dripping boy and talks quietly, making subtle movements with his arms and body to indicate what Mac should try.

Mac shoulders his wet skis and climbs the stairs to the top of the ramp. By lunchtime, he will have climbed these stairs - and jumped into the pool - 15 times in a 1.5-hour session at Lake Placid's jumping complex. It's just part of their seven-hour day training.

Next down the ramp is Ryan St. Onge, 26, the 2009 aerials world champion who moved from Park City to Lake Placid last summer so he could work with Kavunov. He does a double twisting single back flip, legs together, straight as a board. He doesn't even bend his knees when he splashes into the pool.

Jon Lillis goes next. The 14-year-old flies as high as St. Onge but only does one back flip with no twists. When he lands, he loses a ski. After taking off his ski boots, he dives to the bottom of the pool to retrieve the ski. When asked if he's done for the morning, Lillis says no, he has two more jumps.

"And I'm going to go out with a bang," he says, slipping on his drenched ski boots.

More like a smack.

Lillis, Bohonnon, and five other promising freestyle aerialists are participating in the U.S. Ski Association's Elite Aerial Program, a new year-round development program for promising aerials skiers. Their goal: "To be like Ryan," says Lillis, referring to St. Onge, who won gold at the 2009 World Freestyle Championships - the first U.S. aerials gold at worlds in 10 years. And to be the best in the world at the 2014 and 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

The first athlete Kavunov invited to the program was Ashley Caldwell, a gymnast from Virginia who finished fourth at 2008 freestyle nationals. She was 14 at the time and had just taken up freestyle skiing the previous year.

Others joined Caldwell, including Lillis, a moguls skier from Rochester, N.Y., who saw an advertisement for the Elite Aerial Program while watching 2008 freestyle nationals on TV and thought aerials might suit him better than moguls. He emailed Kavunov a video of his skiing and jumping, and the coach invited Lillis to Lake Placid.

The program was initiated by the U.S. Ski Team's freestyle coaching staff and "is part of our long range plan to do a more thorough job in development, particularly in those [ski disciplines] where you have specific training requirements," says Bill Marolt, CEO for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.

The U.S. has traditionally been strong in aerials, a ski discipline that originated in the United States in the 1970s. Aerials became a medal event at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games, and in 1998, Eric Bergoust and Nikki Stone (a former gymnast) swept the gold medals at the Nagano Games. Four years later, Joe Pack took the silver medal at the Salt Lake City Olympics. But in 2006, American aerialists struggled in Torino, where Jeret "Speedy" Peterson in seventh was the top U.S. finisher.

While local club programs provide the foundations for aerialists, the Elite Aerial Program was started to enhance these local efforts and to broaden the search for promising athletes. The USSA freestyle staff approached USA Gymnastics to ask if it was all right to talk to gymnasts, even if they had never skied, about a possible career in aerials.

St. Onge, who trains alongside the young skiers in the program, sees huge value in the program. While the current world champion says he learned much about the sport by watching legends such as Bergoust and Pack, "there was no program to go into that says this is where you start and this is where you finish, and all these steps along the way are mapped out."

Kavunov is key to not only laying out the steps but also seeing that they are followed. The young skiers in the program, as well as St. Onge, refer to the coach as a wizard. Or Yoda. From his perch atop the Coke machine, the coach has an incredible eye for small problems, no matter how minute. He then devises exercises to eliminate them, and "everything is fixed," says St. Onge.

Marolt is particularly excited about Kavunov's demanding step-by-step tactics. "A big part of this whole approach is making sure that [the athletes] have the skills at one level to then take the step to the next level and not taking that step until they are proficient at a lower level," Marolt says.

Even with his experience, St. Onge has benefited from going back to basics, working on jumps like a double full (double twisting back flip) - the "most basic jump," he explains - until it is perfect before adding difficulty. He works on the pool's single jump, not one of the adjacent larger ramps.

"[Kavunov is] developing the proper way to do aerials," says St. Onge. "From there, you build."

And, as Lillis discovers, laziness is not an option. Or being "a chicken."

"As long as you're doing things right, he's really nice," admits Lillis, without adding what happens when skiers don't do things right.

While the goal is to have U.S. aerial skiers make the podium at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, Kavunov says 2018 is more likely. "It's difficult in five years to prepare people for the Olympic Games," he says. "If you want to prepare an athlete at a good level, it's 10 years. It's a process. You can't push people to jump faster. You need to go step by step."

For the upcoming 2010 Olympics, St. Onge is a podium favorite. But he is optimistic about the future of aerials after he retires.

"When I look at what these kids do and what they have going for them, I think to myself how awesome they're going to be, which is pretty cool," he says.

As cool as smacking down in a cold pool.

Peggy Shinn is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.

Tags: Freestyle Skiing, Lake Placid, Ryan St. Onge