Five-Medal Weekend for Freestyle Team
Travis Gerrits soared to silver in aerials and Canadian teenagers Dara Howell and Alex Beaulieu-Marchand earned silver and bronze in slopestyle to cap a five-medal weekend for the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association.
Gerrits, a 21-year-old from Milton, ON, scored 114.67 in the super final round of the World Cup competition in Val Saint-Côme, QC to clinch the second place finish after placing in ninth place a week ago in China.
Gerrits, now healthy after a rough 2012 season that saw him battle a knee injury, was thrilled with the result.
“I’m kind of on top of the world,” said Gerrits “I couldn’t be happier. To come back from my injury last season and to stomp my jumps here, it’s just awesome.”
Howell, from Huntsville, ON, scored 85.8 at the World Cup slopestyle event in Cooper, Colorado.
“I know I’ve been training well,” said the 18-year-old. “And I know that the tricks I have are all tricks I know how to do, so when it came to the contest I just thought of it as another training run. I mean, I was still really nervous and I still had all that going on, but I just tried to have fun and just ski.”
On the men’s side, 18-year-old Beaulieu-Marchand earned his first FIS World Cup medal, a bronze, with a score of 90.4 and was also rewarded by the judges for performing the best trick of the day.
“I’m super happy,” said Beaulieu-Marchard. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting anything, I was just going out there to ski and have fun and it worked out for me so I couldn’t be happier. And, I’m super stoked that I might be having a chance to go to the Olympics, hopefully I’ll get another podium.”
Mike Riddle and Rosalind Groenewoud started off the weekend by winning gold and silver respectively in the halfpipe competition at the World Cup in Copper, Colorado.
