Evan McEachran lands on World Cup podium with slopestyle silver
The FIS Freeski World Cup season came to a close with the slopestyle finals on Saturday at Corvatsch in Silvaplana, Switzerland.
Evan McEachran finished the men’s slopestyle ski event with the silver medal for his fifth career World Cup podium and first of the season.
The two-time Canadian Olympian scored a 91.00 points in his first run to provisionally place him in third. A heavy second run earned him a score of 93.00 points and elevated his rank to second place. It included a right nosebutter 450 to switch on the first rail, a switch left 270 on to blindside switchup to front 450 out on the second rail, and a switch right 1800 safety on jump number two.
“It’s absolutely incredible. I’ve run into all sorts of problems in my finals this year, and I’m really happy to be finishing like this,” McEachran said. “I’ve worked hard on my mental preparation over the past few months, and I feel like it has really helped.
“It sounds a bit cliche, but I focused on just enjoying skiing and putting less pressure on myself, and that’s made a positive difference.”
Sweden’s Jesper Tjader finished with 94.25 points for the gold medal and Norway’s Birk Ruud rounded out the podium with bronze and 92.50 points.
McEachran finishes the season sixth overall in World Cup standings.
On the women’s side, Megan Oldham was the only Canadian to advance to the final, finishing fifth with 85.75 points.
