Even with a lingering ankle injury, it’s been a dream season for Yukon freestyle skier Etienne Geoffroy-Gagnon in his quest for the Canadian national team.

The 20-year-old slopestyle athlete won his first ever NorAm Cup competition in Mammoth Mountain, California on March 12 and in dramatic fashion at that.

With the top six skiers qualifying from the heats, Geoffroy-Gagnon scored a 74.75 to finish fifth in the heat to qualify for the final run later in the day.

“In the finals I ended up landing pretty much the same run, just a lot cleaner and the judges gave an 82.25 with that run,” he said.

And then it was the waiting game for the higher qualifiers to finish their runs.

At the end of the competition, sitting in third place, Geoffroy-Gagnon said he was told the judges scratched his score and gave him an entire extra point moving him just in front of the leader to take the gold.

“I went from sitting there pretty stressed to actually winning and being super taped up for that day, having to struggle in training run and somehow pull through with that,” he said.

An old ankle injury caused trouble while training for the competition, he said, and to be able to come out on top was extra special.

“It was the worst its been all season after the Aspen Open, and I’ve been doing minimal training to try to save my ankle for the day of,” he said.

With the gold-medal performance, Geoffroy-Gagnon is currently sitting in 10th in the Canadian freestyle skiing standings and is hoping to qualify for the NextGen squad next season.

All of the nine skiers ranked ahead of him are already on the national team at one of three levels.

With his performances so far this season, he said he is currently in the position to make the team, but ultimately it will be up the the coaches’ discretion.

“Honestly anything can happen in the next little bit. Obviously it’s not 100 per cent sure, but I’m super happy with my results,” he said. “I don’t think it could have been a better year to do well. They just had an Olympic year, there’s going to be a lot of movement next year. If I can get on that development team that’s huge for me.”

The NextGen team, Geoffroy-Gagnon explained, is the Canadian C team and they train under Freestyle Canada coaches to work up to the next level.

Earlier in the season, Geoffroy-Gagnon competed in some of the same events as the NextGen national team and will be doing so again in his first World Cup start in Quebec this weekend – but not in his top slopestyle discipline.

He will be competing in the big air jamboree competition with the NextGen team as well as the final Canada Cup slopestyle competition of the season in the same weekend.

Geoffroy-Gagnon said he will then compete in the final NorAm competition March 27-April 1 also in Quebec and hopes to have another strong finish to cement his case for making the Canadian NextGen team.

Even more incentive, Geoffroy-Gagnon is currently sitting in first place in the slopestyle standings for the NorAm Cup and the overall winner gets an automatic entry on the World Cup circuit next season.

“It’s been a long time coming. I’m kind of having a dream season,” he said. “I’ve always kept my goal in sight. Now that that one’s pretty close to being done, I’ll start looking toward making the Olympic team in four years.”