Three Yukon athletes will take part in the Yukon Canada Cup freestyle ski competition.
The competition is organized by the Yukon Freestyle Ski Association in partnership with Freestyle Canada and will run from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3 at Mount Sima in Whitehorse.
Charlie Fidler, 16; Jason McKay, 18; and Jacob Robertson, 16, will compete in the slopestyle and big air disciplines.
The three Whitehorse athletes have been training at Mount Sima with the Yukon ski team under coaches Lyndsey Boorse and Calahan Guidolin to prepare.
Fidler said he is hoping to make finals in slopestyle and finish in the top 16.
“I have been training for the last few weekends and working on my weak spots,” he said. “I have been taking it easy but also preparing well without getting injured.”
This is Fidler’s first time at the freestyle ski competition taking place in the territory, though he has competed elsewhere, including the junior nationals in Calgary in 2022 and 2021. He also took part in the Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island earlier this year.
McKay said he has been getting a lot of good, valuable high performance training over the last few weeks.
“It’s been amazing and fun to train with the other athletes from across Canada who know a bunch of tricks we don’t know about,” he said. “I’m going to do my best to make the finals in the big air and slopestyle disciplines.”
McKay also competed at the Canada Winter Games in P.E.I.
Robertson told the News he was supposed to participate in the ski competition last year but withdrew after he was injured. He said the training at Mount Sima has been going well as they have been working on the snow to prepare.
A total of 85 athletes from across Canada will take part in the Canada Cup, including skiers from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.
The competition has been running since 2016 and has two categories. On Nov. 29, there will be a slopestyle/big air open training. Another mandatory training for the two categories takes place on Nov. 30. On Dec. 1, the big air qualifications and finals will take place, while the slopestyle qualifications are slated for Dec. 2. The finals will be held on Dec. 3.
Stephanie Robertson, president of the ski association, said there are three Canada Cups with slopestyle and big air events within the country. Next year, the two remaining series will take place in Sun Peaks Resort in British Columbia in January and Horseshoe Resort in Ontario in March.
Robertson encouraged residents to take in the competition at Mount Sima over the weekend.
“The public is welcome to attend because I’m sure it would be a great event,” she said. “Last year, we had about 300 people come out. So, we’re hoping to have either the same or a little bit more come out to cheer the athletes. We will be having smoothies and hot chocolate drinks.”
Robertson told the News she has been planning for the competition since April. She has organized the past five editions of the competition.
She noted athletes from the territory have been training since mid-November for the competition, including trips to British Columbia and Alberta this summer to train on glaciers.
“They have been on snow and training quite a bit for the competition,” she says. “We are expecting to have an interesting event.”
Rules for the competition are based on the 2023/24 Canada Cup Guidelines and governed overall by the FIS International Competition Rules, according to the organizing committee.
FIS is the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, known as the highest international governing body for skiing and snowboarding.
There is no eligibility criteria for the competition, according to information posted on the association’s website. But coaches are required to ensure athletes are ready to take on the course specifications and relative skill level. The information noted that the competition is an open category competition with no age categories.
Robertson said they received financial support from the Yukon government and Lottery Yukon to help organize the competition. The remaining support came from registration and local community sponsors such as Total North, Freestyle Canada and Air North.
Contact Patrick Egwu at patrick.egwu@yukon-news.com
