Canada's Marion Thénault caps aerials World Cup season with gold medal in Kazakhstan
She won with 94.11 qualification score when fog forced cancellation of final round
Marion Thénault of Sherbrooke, Que., ended her successful aerials World Cup season on top of the medal podium Sunday in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Thénault was awarded gold for her qualification score of 94.11 when low visibility due to dense cloud cover and persistent foggy conditions at Shymbulak Ski Resort led to the final rounds of jumps being cancelled.
Danielle Scott of Australia took silver with an 87.25 effort while Kong Fanyu of China scored 82.21 to earn bronze.
Last March, Thénault made good on her goal of a strong finish to the season and reaching the medal podium, picking up bronze for her fourth podium of the campaign at the season finale in Almaty.
Sunday's win was Thénault's third medal of the season and fourth in the 23-year-old's career on the World Cup circuit.
In February, she picked up bronze at the World Cup stop in Lac-Beauport, Que., after opening the season in early December with a convincing victory over Scott, scoring 99.05 on her second and final jump in Ruka, Finland.
WATCH l Thenault earns bronze at World Cup event in Quebec:
Like last year, Thénault finishes third in the overall World Cup standings. Scott secured the Crystal Globe as the overall season winner, with American Winter Vinecki second overall.
Thénault had slipped in the rankings in December when she missed the World Cup stop in China after suffering a setback in a training jump crash in Finland.
Thénault made her Olympic debut in Beijing in 2022, where she won bronze in mixed team aerials with Miha Fontaine and Lewis Irving, placing seventh in the women's event.
On Sunday, Irving of Quebec City topped the Canadian men's contingent in Kazakhstan, placing eighth (106.79). Teammates Pierre-Olivier Cote (102.87) Lac-Beauport, Que., and Émile Nadeau (100.90) of Prévost, Que., also cracked the top 10 in ninth and 10th, respectively.
Quebec City's Alexandre Duchaine (98.41) was 11th and Victor Primeau (92.43), also from Lac-Beauport, 13th.
Duchaine won his first World Cup event this season at Deer Valley resort in Park City, Utah, while Nadeau collected the second bronze medal of his career at his home event in Lac Beauport.
Duchaine now travels to Airolo, Switzerland to join other junior Canadians to compete in the Europa Cup before continuing to the junior world championships in Valmalenco, Italy later this month. The rest of the team will take a break before resuming preparations for the 2025 world championships and 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
WATCH l Nadeau bags bronze on home soil:
