Tremblant offers skiers last crack at Olympics berth

MONT TREMBLANT With only a few weeks left before the start of the Pyeongchang Olympics, officials with Freestyle Canada pretty well know who will comprise the national moguls team.

But that doesn’t mean some surprises still couldn’t occur. That’s why Saturday’s Fédération Internationale de Ski World Cup is so important. The event, to be held on the South Side of the Flying Mile run on Mont Tremblant, is the last opportunity for the world’s best freestyle skiers to compete before the start of the Feb. 9 Games.

“It’s a fight till the end. There’s still a couple of scenarios that could happen over the next few days,” said David Mirota, a vicepresident (sports) with Freestyle Canada.

The moguls team is expected to consist of four men and four women. Only Mikael Kingsbury, Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Andi Naude have been guaranteed spots based on the strength of recent results. This will be Naude’s first Olympics. Born in Regina and now living in Penticton, B.C., she’s an anomaly, the sole anglophone among the World Cup group.

Kingsbury, 25, from Deux-Montagnes, captured a silver medal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics but is the overwhelming favourite for gold heading into South Korea — with good reason. He’s won all six World Cups this year. His win streak of 13 dates back to last season. Indeed, he hasn’t placed second since a January 2017 World Cup in Calgary. He also has a record 48 World Cup golds.

“He has been on a phenomenal streak. He’s probably the mostdominant athlete in an individual sport right now,” Mirota said in an obvious understatement.

Marc-Antoine Gagnon from Terrebonne also is expected to be part of the team. He placed fourth in Sochi. Quebec City’s Philippe Marquis, who came ninth at the last Winter Olympics, would also normally have been part of the team. But almost two weeks ago, he suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament.

He won’t compete this weekend, but has begun rehabilitation and hopes to recover with three weeks remaining until the opening ceremonies. The team will be unveiled Monday morning at a Montreal news conference. In Marquis’s case, there’s a late-replacement clause in early February, according to Mirota, in conjunction with the team captains meeting before training sessions begin.

“If you do well the year of the Games, it puts you in a higher tier,” Mirota explained. “In theory, anyone who has hit the podium, it puts them in a good place. However, we have a few spots left where people without podiums are trying to get. That could be the case here, especially on the men’s side.”

Among the women, Naude, Dufour-Lapointe and her sister, Chloé, along with Audrey Robichaud have hit the podium this year. Justine Dufour-Lapointe is the reigning gold medallist from Sochi, but is a disappointing seventh in World Cup standings this year. Chloé, who captured silver at those Games, is 16th. The eldest of the sisters, Maxine, is 37th.

On Thursday, the family revealed their mother, 57-year-old Johane, is battling cancer but has been in remission since August. Nonetheless, the chances of all three making the Olympic team has to be considered virtually non-existent.

“Mathematically, it’s still open,” Mirota said. “We have four girls who have hit the podium. For another girl to mix it up, they would have to hit the podium.”

Canada will be represented by nine men and nine women in Tremblant.

Because they’re competing at home, Freestyle Canada is permitted to bring a larger field, one that includes some of its next generation athletes.

That list includes Kerrian Chunland, Gabriel Dufresne, Brenden Kelly, Simon Lemieux, Ryan Portello and Elliot Vaillancourt on the men’s side, along with Berkley Brown, Sofiane Gagnon and Valérie Gilbert. Brown, from Aurora, Ont., is only 17.

This year’s event marks a return of moguls skiing to Tremblant for the first time since 2005, which ended a 10-year run.

Freestyle Canada has struck an agreement with Mont Tremblant Resort, making it the host venue for the next five years.