Canada's Edouard Therriault wins slopestyle bronze at freestyle skiing World Cup event
Lorraine, Que. native wins 1st career World Cup medal in Font Romeu, France
Canada's Édouard Therriault will bring home his first career World Cup freestyle skiing medal from a slopestyle competition in Font Romeu, France on Sunday.
The 18-year-old freestyle skier from Lorraine, Que., scored 81.71 on his first run, good enough to earn a bronze medal behind Andri Ragettli (86.36) of Switzerland and Ben Barclay (82.71) of New Zealand.
"I had my routine set, and I went into it without thinking or worrying too much about what everybody else was going to do. I just believed in myself, trusted myself and it worked out great," Therriault said after the medal ceremony. "I'm really happy with my performance. It's an amazing feeling."
Fellow Canadians Teal Harle, of Campbell River, B.C., and Calgary's Mark Hendrickson finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
WATCH | Therriault wins slopestyle bronze:
"We all really wanted to do well leading to the Olympics, and to secure more spots for Canada in future competitions," Therriault said. "I'm really proud of my team and what we did this weekend – I feel like we outdid ourselves and it's really fun for Canada. We pulled together."
Therriault will next compete in Aspen, Colo. at his first X Games, where he'll try and make progress towards possible participation in the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
"The X Games have been my dream since I was young, so next weekend is going to be an incredible experience," Therriault said. "The more the season progresses, the better I feel on my skis, and the better my results are.
"I really believe I have good momentum right now. As always, my goal is to improve on my own performances, and that's what I'm going to aim for again."
No Canadian skiers were in action in the women's event, which was won by Tess Ledeux of France. Marin Hamill of the U.S. took silver and Austria's Lara Wolf claimed bronze.
