Slopestyle champ Howell returns to sport

TORONTO Canadian freestyle skier Dara Howell wasn’t ready for the whirlwind that followed her slopestyle victory at the 2014 Sochi Games.

An Olympic champion at 19, she struggled with the spotlight and eventually pulled away from the sport.

“I hid from all of it because I didn’t know how to handle it,” she said Wednesday.

There was no single incident that caused her to lose focus. Howell just knew that she wasn’t motivated to perform and took a break for the better part of two seasons.

“I was so overwhelmed,” she said. “I didn’t handle things very well. I felt the pressure of having to make other people happy ... I don’t really know (the reason) to be honest.”

During her time away, Howell tried to spend as much time as possible with friends and family in her hometown of Huntsville, Ont. She started meeting with a sports psychologist last year and began to ramp things up again while working with new coaches.

Eventually she began to feel like her old self on the slopes.

“Maybe I’m delusional for thinking it, but post-Olympics I really went under the radar, so I feel like I’m coming back under the radar a little bit,” she said. “I feel I’m right where I want to be.”

Slopestyle made its Olympic debut at the Sochi Games. Athletes try to wow judges with tricks and moves off jumps and rails while maintaining a high level of difficulty, style and execution.