The Yukon Freestyle Ski Team has now occupied each tier of the podium at the Canadian Junior Freestyle Skiing Championships.
Yukon’s Etienne Geoffroy won his team’s first-ever gold medal at the championships on Wednesday in the Le Relais ski area in Lac-Beauport, Que.
On Thursday he did it again with a gold in the big air competition. Geoffroy also claimed gold in the competition overall.
Wednesday’s big win was in slopestyle in the M2 division (16-17). Geoffroy produced the highest score of the competition, not just in his category, but every category.
“I’m feeling great about my win,” said Geoffroy. “The extra days of training really paid off. I didn’t focus on other people and just focused on landing my run and showing people what Yukon is all about. I landed my run twice in a row and got 91 on my first run and 93.8 on my second one.”
Geoffroy landed a switch bio 1080 with a blunt grab. That’s the trick that put him on top both days.
“I’m really stoked because I landed my best runs out of the four days here and I really couldn’t do it any better. I got the highest score out of everyone and I’m really happy it was here at junior nationals.”
Geoffroy wasn’t the only Yukoner on the podium Wednesday. Teammate Josh Harlow took silver in the same division. Harlow, who won Yukon’s first medal at the junior nationals last year with a bronze in big air, hit corked 900s with tail grabs, alternating the direction of his spins in each jump, “which is really hard to do,” said Yukon head coach Stu Robinson. “That’s what got him silver.”
“All of our guys are doing some of the hardest tricks at the top of the course each time, so they’re really pushing the limits on the smaller end of the course,” said Robinson. “A lot of the (other) guys were saving their big tricks for the final jump. That was a big thing that set us apart.
“The guys were doing corked 900s on the top jump, which is a smaller jump, and still doing big tricks on the bottom.”
Yukon’s Dylan Reed was edged out of a medal in fifth place for M2 and teammate Aidan Allen came 11th in slopestyle.
Reed snagged the bronze on Thursday, though, in the big air competition with a switch bio 900 with a safety grab. He also took bronze in the competition overall.
Yukoners Kyran Allen and Niko Rodden placed seventh and 24th, respectively, in the M3 division (15-16) in slopestyle on Wednesday.
“As proud as I am of these guys, I honestly am not surprised, these guys are all amazing athletes and have so much potential,” said Yukon coach Steven Harlow. “Athletes and coaches were all blown away in just our warm-up.
“This is the highest level team we have ever produced and I’m super proud to be apart of it.”
Wednesday was not the first time Geoffroy set a high water mark for his team. Geoffroy won his team’s first gold medal on the Timber Tour, a national level event, in Prince George, B.C., last month. He also came first in big air and second in slopestyle at the Yukon championships.
Geoffroy only turned 16 in December and is therefore one of the youngest skiers in the M2 division.
Reed, Harlow and Geoffroy have decided to compete at the senior nationals at the end of the month in Calgary, Alta.
“Big air tomorrow, got to forget about today and do what I do best,” said Geoffroy when speaking to the News on Wednesday. “Its a great building block for my next competition, senior nationals.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com