Laurie Blouin and Elena Gaskell reach big air World Cup podiums in Quebec City
The big air World Cup season wrapped up today in Quebec City, where Canadian women soared straight to the podium at the Snow Jamboree.
Laurie Blouin captured a silver medal after nailing a front 720 tail grab on her final run to impress the judges. With that, she was able to move from her third place position to second with a final score of 157.50. Ahead of her was the United States’ Julia Marino (162.25) in first place, who won the same competition last year. Klaudia Medlova (122.50) of Slovakia completed the podium.
On the men’s side, William Buffey finished in sixth place and Carter Jarvis in 10th. 16-year-old Duffey had quite the showing in Quebec City, leading the pack through the first two rounds.
Earlier in the day, Elena Gaskell soared to the ladies’ big air bronze. Her performance in Saturday’s freestyle event was also enough to secure her her very first Crystal Globe.
Gaskell scored at total of 158.00 points off of two runs. On her first run, she posted a score of 75.75 and was able to add another 82.25 points on her second try. She was joined on the podium by Germany’s Kea Kuehnel in second place (160.50) and Swiss skier Mathilde Gremaud, who captured the first place spot (178.00).
Fellow Canadians Yuki Tsubota and Megan Oldham also competed in Quebec City with Gaskell. Tsubota came just short of the podium in fourth place with 156.00 points. Oldham, who won a bronze medal in Mammoth Mountain, California last weekend, finished just behind Tsubota in fifth place with a score of 152.75.
For the men, Quebec native Philippe Langevin and Max Moffatt competed, finishing in fifth place and sixth place respectively. Austria’s Lukas Muellauer won the gold, while Switzerland’s Faban Boesch and Andri Ragettli claimed the silver and bronze.