HALF-PIPE DOMINATION
CANADIAN MEN SWEEP WORLD CUP PODIUM
Justin Dorey, Noah Bowman and Matt Margetts took a giant leap closer to qualifying for the Canadian Olympic team Friday with a sweep of the ski half-pipe podium at the FIS Freestyle World Cup.
Perhaps even sweeter, they claim to have won a long-standing bet with their coach Trennon Paynter thanks to a show of total domination on home snow at Canada Olympic Park.
“That doesn’t happen very often,” Margetts, the third-place finisher said of Canada seizing first, second, and third place in one of the final tune-up events for the Sochi Olympics. “It’s actually so rare that we made our coach a bet that if we ever have a three-person Canadian podium sweep, he’s got to start smoking again.
“So he’s probably going to pick up some Marb Reds tonight and start huffing them down. It’s probably going to be pretty cool.”
For the record, Paynter denies any knowledge of such wager and has no intention of smoking in celebration of such a convincing performance — even with the countdown clock to the opening ceremonies for the 2014 Winter Games sitting at a mere 34 days.
But Canadians have reason for optimism given the host nation’s performance Friday minus the services of 2011 world champion Mike Riddle, of Sherwood Park.
With his trip to Sochi already booked, Riddle sat this one out to nurse a bruised foot.
He proceeded to watch his countrymen take care of business.
Grizzled veteran Dorey, of Vernon, B.C., captured his first World Cup victory with a combined score of 87.20 over two runs.
Bowman, of Calgary, seized silver with a score of 84.40.
Margetts, of Penticton, B.C. won bronze with a score of 82.60.
Flirting with the podium, Simon d’Artois, of Vancouver, finished in fifth place.
“We have some of the best halfpipe talent in the world,” Margetts said, “which is pretty crazy.”
Crazy in a good way, and crazy in a bad one for the athletes involved given the difficulty of qualifying for the Olympics.
Canada has 26 available spots on the freestyle team for Sochi (consisting of athletes from ski cross, aerials, moguls, half-pipe and slopestyle.) This country can send a maximum of four male half-pipe skiers, with five legitimate contenders (Riddle, Dorey, Bowman, Margetts, and d’Artois) in the mix.
“We have a lot of talent on the pipe team,” Dorey said. “We’re feeling really confident….
“It sucks a lot of the time, because we have to be on it all the time. We can’t relax and coast. So we’re competing with each other all the time, especially this year.
“But it does push us and make us a lot better. “
Dorey is known for testing the limits in terms of degree of difficulty of his tricks, but he has played it relatively safe in recent months with an eye to nailing down the Olympic qualification.
“It’s amazing,” Dorey said.
“I can focus on my run for Sochi now. It’s not official I’ll be going now, but I feel really confident in my position to get on the team.
“So now, I can start pushing it a little bit more and start working on my Sochi run.”
Bowman and Margetts still have their work cut out for them in qualifying for the Games, with the official team announcement slated for Jan. 20.
“It means so much to have a podium with two of my best friends and teammates here in Calgary,” said Bowman, a graduate of the National Sport School. “It was so amazing to have friends and family out here supporting.
“Hearing them all cheer before I dropped in, I got chills and knew that all I could do is land my run.”
Upon landing his run, Margetts cradled his best friend Lola at the bottom of the pipe.
“She’s a Chihuahua,” Margetts said, of the trembling canine dressed in a pink sweater. “She’s the best little dog on the planet.”
On this day, the Canadians proved the best skiers on the planet — keeping in mind the Americans stayed home to take care of their own qualifying process.
“I still had a couple Canadians — two teammates, two competitors, that were still ahead of me,” Margetts said of his first World Cup podium performance. “They still did better than me which gives them that little bit more of an opportunity to go (to Russia), which kind of sucks. That’s what’s so hard about it right now.
“You want to be happy. You’re obviously stoked for your friends, but you’re competitors at the same time. So it’s kind of difficult just emotionally to deal with that.
“But yeah, I’m stoked, man. It’s awesome.”
By reaching the podium at Canada Olympic Park, Dorey, Bowman and Margetts all received the $5,000 Sarah Burke Performance Award created by WinSport in memory of the legendary Canadian half-pipe skier who died during training in 2012.
On the women’s side Friday, Calgary’s Megan Gunning came agonizingly close to the podium in fourth place behind Rowan Cheshire of Great Britain, Virginie Faivre of Switzerland and Amy Sheehan of Australia. Edmonton’s Keltie Hansen finished eighth.