Morris shares beautiful moment with Lassila
The first person there to congratulate David Morris after he made the aerials final was fellow Aussie veteran Lydia Lassila.
Master tactician Morris is eyeing off a repeat of his Sochi shrewdness as he seeks to claim Australia's fourth and potential final medal of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The aerial skier had to do it the hard way in qualifying for Sunday night's finals, coming through the repechage round to make the 12-person decider.
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But he ultimately did it in style; moving through in second (124.89 points) from the second group of six qualifiers.
It was the equal-fifth highest score of the night, and after receiving his score, he immediately made his way over to Lassila, who was waiting with a massive hug for Morris' efforts.
Lassila's storied career ended in disappointment on Friday when she failed to make the finals of the women's event.
But she was right there cheering on Morris on Saturday night, in a clear indication of her class.
"It was great and I was really relieved to get through the qualification as it's the most stressful part of the competition," Morris told Channel 7.
"You have to beat more than half the field to get through and then from now on in the finals it's just beating three and you can sneak through with some clever strategy."
It's a scenario he knows well.
Because skiers can't repeat their tricks across the three finals they have to make judicious decisions about what jumps to pull out and when given a limited range of options.
Morris had played that beautifully in Sochi four years ago; qualifying last into what were eight then four-man finals.
It left him with a little more in the bag for the decider.
While the gold was effectively out of reach to Belarusian Anton Kushnir, Morris had neatly landed his trick thinking his competitors would go big in order to win.
He was right and claimed silver.
This time around he has a little more to give with a quin-twisting triple somersault that only three others in the field are thought to possess.
"It's going to be interesting," he said.
"Chance in the finals five twists are going to come out. I'm going to practise it in training and I hope you guys get to see that skill because it is something."
Morris has had a rough few months after tossing up pulling out of the Games because his mother is battling cancer.
His World Cup form has also been down but he's been strong in training and is a noted big-event performer having also captured bronze at last year's world championships.
A medal would ensure the Australian aerials team does not walk away empty handed from a Winter Olympics for the first time since 1998.
It looms as one of the best remaining chances for Australia who may struggle to get another medal elsewhere in PyeongChang.
with AAP