Yukoner captures second gold at freestyle nationals
Sixteen-year-old freestyle skier Etienne Geoffroy has done it again.
Sixteen-year-old freestyle skier Etienne Geoffroy has done it again.
Two days after wrapping up his first gold-medal win in slopestyle at the Canadian Junior Freestyle Championships in Le Relais, Quebec, Geoffroy again struck gold yesterday in the big air competition.
Ontario skier Laurent Currier-Briggs took silver in the big air event, while another Yukon skier, Dylan Reed, picked up bronze.
"After winning my first gold medal (Wednesday), I really tried to forget about it and turn to a new page to try and do it again,” Geoffroy told the Star shortly after collecting his second gold medal. "I was lucky enough to be able to do what I usually do. I'm pretty happy I landed the trick I wanted to land.”
After botching his first run, Geoffroy successfully pulled off his favourite trick, the switch bio-1080 tail grab, to win the event.
"The first time I went, there was a lot of wind,” he explained. "As soon as I did my first run, the wind completely died down. I did my switch-bio to the bottom of the landing and totally exploded. I had to go back up and try to get myself together.
"I pulled it off my second time, which was really relieving.”
Geoffroy and Josh Harlow, who won bronze in slopestyle yesterday, also took the competition's gold and bronze medals for their combined scores in the two events.
"I'm really happy with my performance,” Geoffroy said. "I focused on what I had to do, and the way I had to do it ... and it really paid off.”
Geoffroy and his teammates will now return to Whitehorse for a short break before heading out to the senior nationals in Calgary.
He called his performance at junior nationals a "good building block” for the upcoming event.
"I'm really stoked the team performed like we did. We definitely came into this competition as the underdog and we showed what the Yukon was all about,” Geoffroy said.
"There was definitely a lot of upsets, I'd say.”
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