Alisa Camplin’s comeback from major knee surgery only four months ago ended with a bronze medal at the Torino Winter Olympic Games.

Camplin finished 3rd in the freestyle aerial finals at Sauze d'Oulx after executing two outstanding jumps. Team-mate Jacqui Cooper, who was the top qualifier, finished in 8th position.

Camplin was in disbelief and couldn't hold back the tears of joy.

"My goodness I cannot believe how good third feels. I never stopped believing and here I am," Camplin said.

Jumping in a pea-soup fog, Camplin drew on the support she has received to propel her to the podium in her final Olympic competition.

“I’ve had so much support from Australia,” she said.

“It’s been an amazing roller-coaster, real lows but real highs. I never thought I’d get an Olympic medal and to walk away with first and third is amazing.

"This is so much better than the first time around because I’ve gone through so much heartbreak. It feels like magic.”

Alisa's mum, Jenny Camplin was watching proudly from the stands with Alisa’s manager Karen Oates.

“It's just so wonderful. It's just as good as the gold to me,” Jenny said.

“I'm so proud of her. She's always positive and we're a positive team around her.”

Camplin sat 4th after the first round of jumps. She executed two fantastic triple-twisting doubles, scoring 94.99 on the first jump and was well placed behind a trio of Chinese competitors, Xin Xin Guo, Nina Li and Nannan Xu going into the final round.

Switzerland’s Evelyne Leu catapulted into the lead with a brilliant second jump, and then watched as the field tried to move ahead.

Camplin’s second jump was even better than her first, receiving 96.40 for a total of 191.39. That left her in 2nd place with the Chinese to come.

While Camplin’s jumps were outstanding, she felt she had been performing better in training.

“I’ve jumped more perfect in training, but you don’t know in aerials,” she said.

“I said to my coach at the top of the in-run, ‘don’t worry I’ve got range’. But I had to use my full range to get it down.”

Nannan Xu jumped well but could not surpass Camplin, totalling 191.23. Nina Li was next up and she bumped Camplin to 3rd after registering a total of 197.39.

Xin Xin Guo, who led after the first round with a score of 103.17, was the final competitor. She landed badly on her quadruple jump, and received only 71.68, leaving Camplin with another Olympic medal. Leu took the gold with a total score of 202.55.

The 31-year-old Camplin is the first Australian to win medals at consecutive Winter Olympics. She joins Steve Bradbury as Australia’s most successful Winter Olympians, with a gold and bronze medal.

Cooper was unable to reproduce the form that saw her set two world records in qualifying. She missed the landing on both of her jumps.

Lying in 8th spot after the first round of jumps with a score of 78.97, she failed to match that score with the second effort, earning 73.72. Her total of 152.69 left Cooper in 8th place, the highest finish in her Olympic career.

Camplin damaged her right knee in October, and she had radical allograft surgery that saw a donor patella tendon from a cadaver used to reconstruct the joint.

The Salt Lake City gold medallist did not get back on the snow until Christmas day, and she needed a 4th place finish in a World Cup event in Lake Placid in January to earn a berth on the team.

"A lot of people put me back together, but a lot of people doubted me too. But a small team helped me through."

Camplin was selected to carry the Australian flag into the stadium during the Opening Ceremony, and she capped off her Games with another medal.

Kevin Diggerson / AOC
Torino