‘It’s so hard to find the words’
After four-year wait, Penticton’s Naude thrilled to be skiing moguls in Pyeongchang
Andi Naude has known since April, an eternity in sports, she had pre-qualified for the Winter Olympics.
And yet, when Isabelle Charest, Team Canada’s chef de mission for the Pyeongchang Games, gave Naude her Olympic jacket Monday morning, the moguls skier couldn’t hide her excitement.
“I’m so thrilled. It’s so hard to find words,” said the 22-year-old from Penticton, the only female non-Quebecer on a team that has dominated the World Cup circuit. “It’s something I’ve dreamed of since I was a little kid. Just to make that dream come true, that’s huge.”
The Canadian Olympic Committee, in conjunction with Freestyle Canada, announced its team Monday morning at a St-Léonard school once attended by NHL goaltenders Roberto Luongo and Martin Brodeur.
Joining Naude on the moguls team are three women and three men: sisters Justine and Chloé Dufour-Lapointe, Audrey Robichaud, Mikaël Kingsbury, Marc-Antoine Gagnon and Philippe Marquis. Three aerials competitors — Lewis Irving, Catrine Lavallée and Olivier Rochon — also were unveiled at the news conference.
Conspicuous by her absence from the team, as expected, was Maxime Dufour-Lapointe, who placed 12th at the Sochi Olympics but has had a disappointing season while recovering from April hip surgery.
Naude, who has nine World Cup podiums in her career, missed qualifying for the 2014 Games by one spot. That disappointment, she said, served as motivation the last four years.
“It was heartbreaking at the time and I was devastated,” she said. “At the same time, I’m glad I didn’t end up in Sochi because it really made me know, deep inside, that I wanted to be at the next Games. And I was going to be at the next Games.
“I’m thrilled to be going to Pyeongchang.”
The South Korean competition runs Feb. 9-25. The moguls event will be one of the first to be staged.
The freestyle team won nine medals at Sochi, including four double podiums in men’s and women’s moguls. In many respects, these Winter Olympics will almost be anticlimactic given the challenge these athletes had just qualifying for the team.
“That’s probably the most stressful part of the process,” Naude said. “When we’re at the Games, it’s just skiing again. It’s like any other World Cup. The competition within our team’s so great. We’re leaving behind very capable people. It’s a shame they can’t come. That’s just how it is.”
Freestyle Canada has a threetiered system it uses to decide who qualifies. While an athlete’s three highest placings during a two-year span weigh heavily, more emphasis is placed on this season’s performances. Between the five disciplines — moguls, aerials, halfpipe, slopestyle and skicross — a total of 30 can be named, but no more than four men and women each in any one category.
The women have performed better than the men this season in moguls.
“We’d like to medal in all disciplines. For sure, it’ll be a bigger challenge in some,” said David Mirota, Freestyle Canada’s vice-president. “If we medal in every discipline ... great. We have the potential to do more in certain disciplines.” That would be moguls. Justine Dufour-Lapointe is the defending Olympic champion, while Chloé captured a silver at Sochi. So, too, did Kingsbury, but the 25-year-old from Deux-Montagnes has to be considered the favourite in Pyeongchang.
Kingsbury saw his string of 13 consecutive World Cup victories, nearly spanning a full calendar year, come to an end Saturday afternoon at Mont-Tremblant, where he placed second to Japan’s Ikuma Horishima.
Nonetheless, Kingsbury has 48 career victories. He’s the best male competitor the sport has seen.
“He’s a very talented kid, obviously. The more pressure he has, the better he performs. He’s got it all,” Mirota said. “For sure, I’m biased. We’re spoiled to have an athlete like Mikaël in our sport and on our national team.”
An Olympic gold medal is the only thing missing from Kingsbury’s mantle. He claimed there’s no pressure.
“If I do my job, the judges have no choice but to give me a good score,” he said.
Marquis, a 28-year-old veteran from Quebec City, is the only uncertainty. Marquis, who was ninth at Sochi, is recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury in his right knee suffered just over two weeks ago.
Although Marquis didn’t compete at Tremblant, he was on skis while continuing his rehabilitation and has been medically cleared.
“I don’t plan on being 100 per cent at the Olympics. I know that’s not going to be the case, but I plan on being close,” he said. “If I reach that level, Philippe Marquis at that level is a pretty dangerous athlete.”