Even with four Arctic Winter Games medals under her belt, Yukon Freestyle Ski Team member Anna Smith was not expecting the results she attained last weekend at the BC Freestyle Championship on Silver Star Mountain in Vernon, BC.
“I wasn’t expecting to do so well because the girls there were pretty intense,” said Smith. “It was way bigger than Arctic Games. But all around, it was so much fun.”
In the biggest event of its kind in Canada - minus the Olympics - Smith skied her way to a silver medal in the slopestyle and bronze in the big air event.
“The silver stands out because I like slopestyle so much more and I did better in it,” said Smith, 15, who landed a 360 rotation and a spread eagle in her run.
“Because they were running behind, we only had one run - we were supposed to do two - and I only had one training run, and it was a bad training run too. So I was surprised that I did well.”
For the bronze Smith performed a double spread eagle, but came down hard on her final jump, overshooting the landing.
“I over-gapped it (on the final jump), so I landed at the bottom instead of on the (jump’s) landing,” said Smith. “But I was OK.”
One Yukoner who was not OK was Sebastien Berthiaume, who suffered a fractured leg in training for the slopestyle event.
“It’s always tough to see an athlete go down,” said Yukon coach Stu Robinson. “I large gust of wind caught Sebastien as he hit the biggest jump in the event and pushed back for a very hard landing. He is taking it well and will make a fast recovery though.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com