Hopes high after podium sweep
CALGARY— A World Cup gold medal is always a big deal, but Justin Dorey’s win Friday in ski half-pipe came with some extra doses of sparkle.
To start with, he was joined on the podium by his Canadian teammates Noah Bowman in second place and Matt Margetts in third.
A podium sweep in a sport about to make its Olympic debut in Sochi next month provides a pretty big confidence boost that the Canadian team is doing something right.
Dorey’s win also all but locks up his own Olympic spot in Canada’s tough and complicated freestyle ski qualification process. And that means the 25-year-old from Vernon, B.C., can start to get back to the kind of skiing he loves — on the edge of the sport.
“I’ve been playing it pretty safe this year but now that I have my spot somewhat locked down, I can start pushing it a bit more technically,” Dorey said after his win at Canada Olympic Park.
“It’s the risk-reward thing; it’s so much more rewarding to go for it. I miss the reward of stomping tricks that I’m proud of.”
Dorey is known for having some of the highest difficulty tricks of anyone in the men’s field, but he’s had trouble with consistency. He’s had to fight his go-for-broke personality this sea-
“I’m starting to realize that (competing at the Olympics is) one of the biggest feats you can accomplish in sport.” JUSTIN DOREY FREESTYLE SKIER
son to give himself the best shot of getting the results he needs to get to the Olympics.
Dorey won the prestigious 2012 Dew Tour but during training for the following event he tore his shoulder out of his socket and needed surgery. That took him out for the rest of the season, so he wasn’t able to get the three podiums last season that would have eased his way to the Olympics.
“I’ve never been out for a full season before. It’s hard, harder than I expected,” he said. “You work so hard (rehabilitating) in the gym and you see just a little bit of improvement at a time. It’s frustrating not to be able to put your heart into it and just get right back out there.”
But now he’s feeling good and dreaming of the Olympics. Unlike many athletes, that’s not something he’s been thinking about for very long. Dorey is part of the action sport generation that grew up watching the X Games, not the Olympics. “I didn’t realize how big of a deal the Olympics were. I’m starting to realize that it’s one of the biggest feats you can accomplish in sport,” he said. “You’re on stage in front of the whole world. There’s a very small demographic that pays attention to the X Games but everybody watches the Olympics.” The International Olympic Committee is actually looking to create a bit more of an X Games vibe in Sochi, having fast-tracked several of its freestyle ski and snowboard events into the Olympic program. That’s a boost to Canada’s medal hopes as the nation’s freestyle teams are particularly strong. The Canadian men’s halfpipe podium sweep here came even without Mike Riddle, the world leader in the discipline, who was out nursing a bruised heel. On the women’s side, Canadian half-pipe star Rosalind Groenewoud was also absent as she’s still recovering from recent meniscus surgery on both knees. Calgary’s Megan Gunning, who grew up on this pipe, just missed the podium with a fourth place, while Keltie Hansen finished eighth. Gunning and Hansen are still in the hunt for an Olympic spot on the women’s side, while Bowman, Margetts and Simon d’Artois, who was fifth, are in the running on the men’s side.