For his final Freestyle ski competition of the year, Mavik MacKinnon is coming home with a Bronze Medal from perhaps his most challenging competition to date – the B.C. Winter Games 2023. Mavik’s early season performance in the 2023 B.C. Timber Tour earned him selection by Freestyle B.C. to represent for the Vancouver Coastal region (Zone 5), since he primarily trains and competes with the Whistler Freestyle Team, and this was the event of the year – for Mavik at least!

After a January Gold medal at Sun peaks in Slopestyle and a February Silver medal in Fernie, also in Slopestyle, Mavik was having a great season in this new higher level of competition – U14 Timber Tour – a big step up from the Super Youth category that he had been competing in last year and prior.

He also placed ninth in Big Air and 11th in Moguls at Sun Peaks and placed 10th in Big Air and sixth in Moguls at the Fernie competition – both being part of the Timber Tour freestyle ski competition circuit in B.C. These results led to an exciting yet unanticipated call from Freestyle B.C. in late February inviting Mavik to represent Zone 5 (Vancouver/Coastal) at the B.C. Winter Games in Vernon from March 23 to 26, along with about 900 other athletes.

This amazing opportunity led to some serious contemplation and decision-making, since there was still a chance that Mavik would get selected to represent B.C. at the Jr. Nationals, and a spot on the wait list for the B.C. Championships may also open up. Ultimately, it seemed he was close to making the cut for the Jr. Nationals, but not close enough to make it likely, and he chose the B.C. Winter Games – his first event that required qualification and his first multi-sport games – over the B.C. Championships. So, off to the B.C. Winter Games it was! We later learned that he was so close to being selected to represent B.C. for the Junior Nationals that he was the first alternate for the B.C. team!

For the B.C. Winter Games, the weather was mild at SilverStar Mountain Resort outside of Vernon and the conditions were quite good on the first day (Thursday Mar. 23rd) of unofficial training. The team had only three hours and focussed on Slopestyle training rather than Moguls. The opening ceremonies were that night and went quite late. The ceremony was a large event held in a local arena (Kal Tire Place) with entertainment, speeches and even a motivational speaker. That night about 10 cm of fresh snow fell unexpectedly.

The fresh snow on Friday morning was not a problem for the first event – Moguls – since it was all scraped away during training runs, but the underlying base on the moguls course became very icy. This made for challenging conditions for many skiers, but Mavik seemed to manage it well. After the official training for Moguls and the two competition runs, the Zone 5 team was keen to practice Slopestyle, but the fresh snow and lack of grooming made it poor conditions for that too. Still, they did get a taste of the features (jumps and rails) before heading back to athlete accommodations for the day – and another late night with an athlete’s ‘Carnival’ to attend, which again kept them up late.

Saturday morning brought clearer skies and no new snow, along with a fresh-groomed terrain park – perfect conditions for Slopestyle as long as the snow did not warm up too much, since that slows the competitors down – not what you want when approaching XL-rated jumps! Slopestyle is Mavik’s specialty – and where he usually gets a medal – but it did warm up and he struggled on the second XL jump, not quite having enough speed to confidently execute his planned trick – a Misty 720 or Misty 900 if fast enough (a Misty is an off-axis front flip with rotation added).

In the end Mavik had a low quality first run and a better second run, but not the run he had planned. His rail performance was very good though, so we were not sure if there would be a medal, since some judges do award high points for such rail tricks, but at this event unfortunately there were no separate and well-located rail judges as there had been at some other events.

That night the awards for Moguls and Slopestyle were announced and presented and we learned that Mavik placed fifth in Moguls and ninth in Slopestyle. Not bad rankings, but no medal in Slopestyle was devastating for Mavik, a specialist in that discipline, and it took quite a bit of discussion and reflection to move on in preparation for the next day.

Sunday morning was intense, with an early start requiring training and the Big Air competition to be all squeezed in before noon. Big Air is one XL jump judged solely for the one big trick that you can do.

Mavik got a few training laps in and found the snow very slow for his weight and knew that it was not fast enough for his Misty 900, so he practised a ‘Switch 1080’ - a backwards or reverse-launched triple rotation landing backwards too. This was the first time that he had ever done that trick in competition but he landed a very clean one in practice.

The snow conditions were getting slower, so we quickly decided to get some liquid wax to try to help out. He did his first run without the wax and cleared the gap doing the Switch 1080, but had a fall on landing, leading to massive pressure in this athlete’s mind!

The next run was his last of the competition and he had no medals yet. This was a major mental challenge for an athlete that has many podium finishes already and one that has brought home a medal in all of the last three events attended – five medals in three competitions, including three silvers at the B.C. Championships last year.

We could tell this was weighing heavily on him and tried to help him move on from the frustration and disappointment to focus only on the next run. By then the wax showed up and we had just enough time to quick-wax his skis before it was time for his second and final lap. The second run went much better, with a gasp and cheers from the crowd for the only Switch-1080 of the competition! Mavik was satisfied and excited, but we still did not know what to expect from the judges. After a few cool-down runs we went to the awards and he was immediately pulled aside by a Games official, along with a couple of other athletes – strongly indicating he had won a medal.

Proud parents, proud athlete! A few minutes later, the formal awards were announced, complete with the national anthem and a formalized award protocol and a bronze medal for Mavik! What a massive relief for Mavik too, who has put so much into this sport that he loves in the face of significant challenges.

Mavik has now made the podium in every one of his last four events, including the 2023 B.C. Winter Games, one B.C. Championships (in 2022) and two other 2023 Timber Tours (the qualifying events for the B.C. Winter Games and the Junior Nationals). His wins in these four events led to one gold, four silvers and one bronze medal. What a year!

We would like to thank friends and family near and far as well as the fantastic B.C. Freestyle ski community that has been so generous and accommodating. We have deep gratitude for the support from Freestyle B.C. and the Whistler/Blackcomb Freestyle Ski Club and coaches who have been instrumental in advancing Mavik’s skills and performance.

Great coaching by our superb local National Freestyle Ski Team member – Etienne Geoffrey-Gagnon – played a key role in early-season preparedness. We also thank Yukon Built, Lotteries Yukon and Sport Yukon for their support. Mount Sima is a great place to train and the groomers, terrain park crew and local freestyle ski athletes all deserve mention for being such an awesome and supportive crew.

– Submitted by Sean MacKinnon.