Three Medals For Canada

Canada took three medals in ski Halfpipe at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park here tonight with Rosalind Groenewoud leading the team with a silver, while Keltie Hansen and Mike Riddle both won bronze.

The medals came on the site that will be host to the first-ever Olympic ski Halfpipe event next year when the Games come to Sochi. Despite warm temperatures and alternating rain and heavy wet snow which the verdict was that the pipe held up very well and the venue was impressive.

On the women’s side France’s Virginie Faivre took the gold at 80.8, edging Groenewoud who scored 79.0. Hansen took her first podium of the season with a score of 76.4.

Groenewoud, of Calgary, Alta., was happy to earn a medal in the Olympic pipe, but acknowledged that she has room to improve before the big show next year.

For Groenewoud, the medal also confirmed her provisional early nomination to the Canadian Olympic team through the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association’s ‘Method A’ nomination process, which she is determined to use to her advantage.
“I think it will make me focus on making decisions to win the Olympics as opposed to just qualifying for the Games,” she said, adding, “Now I’m just going to work towards being really rested and performing the best possible at the Olympics.”

The bronze medals mean Hansen and Riddle are one step closer to earning their own early nomination to the Games; both need one more key result to clinch their spots.

Riddle, who had a bit of a nail-biter waiting for results after falling on his second run in the best-of-two run final, was ecstatic.

Americans Torin Yater Wallace and Gus Kenworthy took the top spots in the men’s field, scoring 93.8 and 90.0 to Riddle’s 88.2.

Riddle credited his wax technician with helping make his skis fast enough to get through the sticky conditions, and the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association with giving the Halfpipe team the resources and support to help them land on the podium.

Calgary’s Noah Bowman qualified 10^th for the final round, but had falls on both of his runs; he landed in 10^th overall with a score of 28.2.
Matt Margetts of Penticton and Kris Atkinson did not advance to the 12-man finals and finished in 19^th and 26^th position, respectively.

With the Halfpipe medals, and yesterday’s mogul medals by Mikael Kingsbury and Philippe Marquis, Canada’s total medal count for the Sochi test event is five, with aerial action still to come tomorrow night.