PARK CITY, Utah – In her first win in four years, Ashley Caldwell lit up the sky with a pair of triple flips, joining teammate Kiley McKinnon in the first 1-2 finish for the U.S. women in 26 years.

Mac Bohonnon notched his second podium of the season, finishing second to a massive 138.50 points set by China’s Guangpu Qi.

Caldwell, a two-time Olympian at just 21 years old, was beaming after finding her way to the top after an excruciating two-year battle back from knee injuries. She did it in style, and was the only woman in the field to throw two triple flips.

McKinnon, meanwhile came in with a pair of very clean doubles to take the third podium of the season and her career, moving within two points of the World Cup aerials lead.

At one of the most popular venues in her sport, Caldwell took advantage of home snow advantage risking the higher degree of difficulty triple flips to build into her winning score.

“This is the first time I’ve ever done lay-double-full-full in contest and only the second time I’ve done full-full-full in contest, and the first time doing them together,” said Caldwell. “It’s really exciting for it to pay off.”

It was a pivotal win for Caldwell, an Ashburn, Virginia resident who suffered several injuries in the lead-up to the Sochi Olympic Winter Games. It was her second career World Cup win, the first coming in Lake Placid four years ago.

Bohonnon, who was on the podium in China before Christmas, put down a 128.51 on his final jump that could easily have won had it not been for the astounding performance of Qi.

“We’ve been training for so long for this,” said Bohonnon. “We’ve got a really young team, but an incredibly talented team. To get three podiums in one night and do that in front of a hometown crowd is just unbelievable.”

All three athletes are products of the Team’s Elite Aerial Development Program, developed in the mid-2000s to introduce acrobatic athletes to freestyle aerials skiing. Caldwell was the first to breakthrough from the program, with Bohonnon and McKinnon each now with three career podiums.

The aerialists depart Friday for the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in Kreischberg, Austria, with training beginning Monday. The World Cup will resume after the championships with a pair of events at the Putnam Lake Placid Freestyle Cup in Lake Placid, Jan. 30-31. Moguls are on tap at the Visa Freestyle Interational tonight at Deer Valley Resort.

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O’Shea, Graybill kick off 2nd half with top-20 finishes

ALTENBERG, Germany – Annie O’Shea finished 17th and Savannah Graybill was 19th in Altenberg’s women’s skeleton World Cup race this morning. The track maintained its tough reputation, and both Americans struggled to piece together the course before race day.

“Annie and Savannah were both struggling in corner four this week,” said Tuffy Latour, U.S. skeleton head coach. “It’s the first World Cup of the second half and we’re looking forward to the next race and getting a fresh start.”

O’Shea clocked a first run of 1 minute, 1.23 seconds and gained two positions in the second run with a time of 1:00.52. She finished 17th with a two-run total of 2:01.75. Graybill had a respectable first run time of 1:00.80 but she was tripped up by the tricky course in the second run. She fell back two positions into 19th with a total time of 2:02.20.

Russian Maria Orlova earned her first-ever World Cup victory with a two-run total of 1:58.65. Orlova was in third after the first heat and moved into the lead by 0.04 seconds in the second run. Olympic champion Elizabeth Yarnold from Great Britain was second with a combined time of 1:58.69. Russian Elena Nikitina posted the fastest run of the competition in the second heat to move up from seventh place into third with a total time of 1:58.87.

The Russian women have never finished on the podium in Altenberg before, and Nikitina edged out Germans Tina Hermann and Sophia Griebel, who tied for fourth on their home track, for bronze.

“It’s a big honor to have two Russians on the podium,” Orlova said during the flower ceremony interview.

World Cup action continues today with the women’s bobsled competition.