Early Life & Sporting Career
Marshall was born in Melbourne on 21/04/69 and grew up in Black Rock, Victoria with parents, Ron and Anne, older sister, Sascha and younger brother, Carey. She attended Black Rock Primary school (Prep - Yr 6), then Mentone Girls High School (now Mentone Secondary College) before transferring to Firbank Girls' Grammar School in Yr 9. She moved to Taylors College for Yr 12.
Marshall, along with her siblings, started skiing from the age of 4 at the Mount Baw Baw ski resort in Victoria, Australia. In 1981 the family became regular skiers at the Mount Buller ski resort, one of the largest ski resorts in Victoria. In 1987 she joined Team Buller, a Freestyle ski team run by Geoff Lipshut, Peter Braun, Eyal Talmore, Tim Skate and David Freedman based on Mount Buller.
The creation of a skier-exchange program for Freestyle Aerialists saw three Japanese skiers spend the 1987 winter in Mount Buller one of whom, Takayo Yokoyama, was nearing the end of his career and was interested in becoming an International coach. With little prospects in his native country, the chance meeting in Australia saw Marshall being offered a four month scholarship in Inawashiro, Listel Ski Fantasia, the center for Freestyle Skiing in Japan, with Takayo as her coach.
Following the 1988 Australian Freeslyle competition where she placed first, Marshall decided to follow the European winter and compete on the four month long World Cup Season. Sponsored by a Melbourne based travel company, she headed overseas as the only Australian representative in either Aerials, Moguls or Ballet (Acrobatics).
Whilst not truly competitive with her single back layout and single front tuck, she completed her rookie season finishing in 10th position, at that time the highest placing by an Australian winter athlete, male or female, in any winter sport. In 1990 Marshall won her first World Cup event. In 1992, she was crowned World Champion, with six World Cup victories. She was Australia’s flag bearer at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, where she was placed sixth in the women’s aerial skiing event – the nation’s best Olympic result at the time. She also competed in the Winter Olympics at Nagano in 1998. Marshall set several world records over the course of her skiing career, including becoming the first woman in history to score over 100 points on a single competition jump, with a score of 104.37. Her 17th career World Cup gold medal in 1998 tied her for the all time record for career World Cup aerial victories with Cannadian skier Marie Claude Asselin, who retired in 1984.
Marshall discovered current Australian aerial skier, David Morris, while attending a gymnastics display at his local club, which is within her electorate of Forest Hill.
Read more about this topic: Kirstie Marshall
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