ZHANGJIAKOU, China 鈥� Canada's Olivia Asselin earned her ticket to a second Olympic final on Monday as she qualified for the finals of the women's freestyle skiing slopestyle.
The 17-year-old finished in 11th after scoring a 64.68 on her first run at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou. While she tried to improve on the score in her second run, she was unable to complete it.聽
"I definitely would have liked to improve my situation with my second run," Asselin said. "I hadn't made my biggest jumps on my first 鈥� I decided to play it safe to have a score in the bank."
Asselin tried to raise the difficulty on her second run, but didn't finish. Nevertheless, she said she was happy to be moving on to Tuesday's final.
鈥淏y keeping my biggest runs (for the final), it will also create a surprise effect," she said. "I'm going to do the big moves that I did in training in order to improve my score."
Asselin admitted that she was feeling "mentally exhausted" by the gruelling schedule that has kept her busy since her big air event, where she finished eighth.
"We haven't had a day off since the big air," she said. "In fact, the only one we got was our travel day to the mountains.
"I was more in the mode of, 'do what I can and we'll see.'"
The Lac-Beauport, Que., native was the only Canadian to make the finals. Her teammate Megan Oldham was unable to make the top 12, missing a relatively easy manoeuvre on the first rail of her first run.聽
"It's hard to explain; I was surprised myself," Oldham said. She said she'd never struggled with that element in training.聽
"That's a bit how it goes in slopestyle: everything has to be perfect. Unfortunately, I had a bad start and it was done."
Her second run was better, but her score of 63.10 relegated her to 13th.聽
Oldham said she thought the score was fair, noting that she'd missed an edge grip on her last trick. "It's a thin line between putting on too much or not enough and being consistent."
Oldham is a world bronze medallist and was disappointed to not move on, especially after having just missed the podium with a fourth-place finish in the big air.
Nevertheless, she described the Games as a "fabulous experience" and promised to be back in 2026.
Estonia's Kelly Sildaru won the qualifier with a score of 86.15, in front of Norway's Johanne Killi with 86.00 and China's Eileen Gu with 79.38.
Switzerland's Sarah H枚fflin, the defending champion in the event, didn't make the final, finishing 20th.聽
The competition was overshadowed by an injury to American Marin Hamill, who fell heavily on the landing of the last jump of her second run and was taken away on a stretcher.聽
A spokesperson for the U.S. team told The Canadian Press that Hamill suffered a right leg injury and will return to the United States for further examination and treatment.聽
She qualified for the final after scoring a 69.43 in her first run, but will not compete. Her departure means there will only be 11 competitors in the final.聽
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2022.
Fr茅d茅ric Daigle, The Canadian Press
