Turski settles for silver at X Games
Montrealer crashed on first two runs
ASPEN, COLO. — Montreal’s Kaya Turski earned a silver medal in ski slopestyle at the X Games on Sunday, while fellow Canadian Dara Howell earned bronze.
Norway’s Tiril Sjastad Christiansen — at 17 the discipline’s youngest gold medallist — pulled off an upset win against Turski, who was looking for a fourth-straight gold medal at the event.
Turski crashed on her first two runs and was sitting in last place going into her final run. The 24-year-old needed to beat Christiansen’s 92.33 score for a record fourth title, but only scored 90 with a run that included a rodeo 540, a switch 720 and a switch cork 540.
“I’m so excited about the silver medal and relieved,” Turski said. “You know, the second rail kind of messed with me, it’s so silly, I feel like it’s often the features you don’t even think twice about that give you a hard time and today they did.”
Turski was forced to wait at the top of the course for more than 30 minutes before her third run as officials attended to Chicago’s Ashley Battersby, who crashed on the course and slid into the retaining fence. She was taken to a hospital with a knee injury.
“It was for sure a little bit of a mind game and the course changes a little over that time, too,” Turski said.
That was the second serious injury of the day as Rose Battersby (no relation) of New Zealand was taken to hospital following a serious fall in training.
Howell, an 18-year-old X Games Aspen rookie from Huntsville, Ont., held the lead momentarily in the middle of the second round before finishing with the bronze at 89.33.
“I missed my grabs a little bit, but I’m happy to be on the podium,” Howell said. “I definitely want to keep progressing. I want to keep pushing the sport and pushing myself and today was a run I knew I could put down and I just have to get those grabs better for next time.”
Meanwhile, Quebecer Alex Bellemare of St. Boniface was fourth on the men’s side with a score of 90.66.
American Nick Goepper won the gold with a third-run score of 94.00, followed by Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut (92.66) and James Woods (92).