A Home Run: USA Goes Back to Back in Aerials Team
At the 2025 FIS Freestyle World Championships in St. Moritz, the Stifel U.S. Ski Team became the first country to ever win back-to-back World Championship team medals.
An air of confidence fell over the jumps in St. Moritz as the U.S. went to bat for their second aerials team World Championship title in a row. Kaila Kuhn, Quinn Dehlinger and Chris Lillis had a cool, but calm mentality as they looked onward towards the kickers as the other nations took their final training jumps.
Kuhn started things off for the U.S. in the round of eight, throwing a lay full full - a trick that she has only performed a handful of times. Her air was beautiful with a small bobble on the landing, and earned a great score to put the U.S. into the lead, a position they never lost. Dehlinger and Lillis both threw double full full fulls in the qualification round with near perfect execution to qualify for the super finals in the top spot with 322.6 points - 33 points ahead of second place Australia. In a surprising turn of events, China, an aerials powerhouse, did not qualify into the super finals after a few missed landings, finishing in sixth place.
As the U.S. qualified in the top spot, each U.S. athlete would be the last to drop in their respective round. Kuhn watched from above as the top women put down great jumps, but knew exactly what she needed to do to set the team up for success. Kuhn once again threw a lay full full and this time, landed it perfectly - the first time she has successfully landed this trick in competition. With a score of 100.29, she did exactly what she needed to do.
Then it was time for the men to do their jobs. Dehlinger was next up for the U.S., throwing the ‘daddy’ once again and improved on his first round score by more than two points. The team sat in first place as the third athlete per country prepared to go. After a few excellent jumps, the pressure all sat on the shoulders of Lillis as the last athlete to drop in the entire competition. He needed to execute to secure his second World Championship gold - both for him and for his team. He dropped in and everything aligned, his air, form and landing were excellent - earning a humongous score of 125.34, to win the event by 32 points. The team rushed the finish area after Lillis’ jump and - living up to their infamous bowling celebration from Changchun last year - celebrated with a home run.
“This is my first team event competing with these two, and I was so happy to put that triple to my feet,” said Kuhn.
“It’s the first one of that trick that I have landed, so I am so excited,” Dehlinger said. “I was at the top talking to myself saying ‘hit a takeoff, look at the ground, land it and let the judges do the rest.'”
When asked about how he was able to perform under pressure, Lillis said “I can’t let my team down! Kaila, I’ve been watching her grow up, and just go through triples, Quinn is kind of like a little brother to me, and I’ve had such a fun time growing with him, I just knew I couldn’t let them down. I’ve been in these moments before in the Olympics and the previous World Championships, and did what I had to do, and I’m just happy to execute.”
“I think the idea for the [baseball celebration] was born in Lake Placid,” said Lillis. “It was one of the few team events where we underperformed as a team and just didn’t get it done, so we weren’t able to use that celebration, so it’s good to get that out of the tank.”
In two days, the team will be back in action for the individual aerials event, starting with qualification on Saturday, March 29, followed by finals on March 30. Tune in to watch on skiandsnowboard.live.
