Freestyle aerialist skier Steve Omischl has pretty much made the decision to retire from competition and plans to take a plunge into coaching.

The two-time World Cup overall champion will oversee a program this July where a group of young hopefuls will get their first taste of jumping off the water ramp at Whistler, B.C.

"I haven't done a lot of coaching over the past couple of years," Omischl told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview Wednesday from his hometown of North Bay, Ont.

"It will be an interesting challenge to get back into it, to be on the other side of it."

Omischl, 31, a three-time Olympian, doesn't plan to compete in the upcoming World Cup season

There's "a one per cent chance" he will return for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

"I'm not going to be jumping next season," said Omischl, who finished a disappointing ninth at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. "I am going to get into coaching right now and see what happens with that and see if I like it.

"If I stay healthy and stay fit, I could maybe … make a return. You never say never. As far as it goes right now, I'm done."

Should Omischl get the Olympic itch again he'd wait until a year before Sochi before taking a test run on the World Cup.

"My body couldn't take a couple of seasons," he said. "If I was going to come back I would just come back to try and qualify."

Giving back to sport

Right now, Omischl is excited about giving back to the sport by helping to develop the next wave of aerialists.

The Whistler camp will be for youth between 12 and 16. Most have a background in gymnastics or trampoline.

Launching themselves off the ramp on Blackcomb Mountain and landing in the icy waters of the pool will be their first experience of jumping with skis.

"We are going to train but keep it very fun and keep the kids psyched on jumping, not worrying too much about being perfect with their technique," said Omischl.

"If I set up a national team program they would quit after the first week. I mainly want to get these kids active and start building the framework as they get older."

Omischl sees the camp as a way to continue the momentum of the Vancouver Games.

"It's a great opportunity for us to build off that experience we had in Vancouver," he said. "It's such a specialist sport you have to go out and recruit.

"It's not like you can go rent a pair of skis and start flipping around. We need to use the attention we got because of 2010 and get some more kids involved."

While in North Bay, Omischl attended a ceremony where the city's new sport complex was named after him.

"The community has always supported me," he said. "It's pretty cool to be recognized like that."

40 career medals

During his career, Omischl won 40 medals and had 28 top-10 finishes in 79 World Cup appearances. He won the FIS World Cup aerials championship four times, the last in 2009.

He would have loved to end his career by winning his only Olympic medal on home soil, but came away empty handed after not making a clean landing.

"It sucked it came down to a little bit of a deep landing," Omischl said.

Peter Judge, chief executive officer of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, said it's a natural progression for Omischl to become a national team coach.

"I would love to have him as a full-time coach down the road," said Judge.

"He started out as an athlete that wasn't the most well endowed in terms of talent. He came through with a very hard work ethic and learned the hard way. When you do that, you usually learn those lessons well in order to pass them on."

Omischl knows not all great athletes make good coaches.

"That's why I want to start at this level and get an opportunity to work with some of our other programs and see how I like it," he said. "I did well as an athlete but who knows as a coach? I might not have enough patience.

"I am going to try it out and see if it works for me and see if it works for the kids. I have a passion for the sport and I want to give back. I could see myself in years to come working with our World Cup team."

Omischl can already see a problem the first day he stands on the sideline of a World Cup competition and watches the other athletes.

"I'm going to think I can kick their butt," he laughed.