Canada announces national ski slopestyle team for 2014 Winter Olympics
The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, may still be three years away, but Canada has already embarked on the journey, announcing its first official national slopestyle ski team.
The announcement was made by the Canadian Freestyle Ski Federation (CFSA) on Wednesday and follows the approval by the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board’s for the addition of ski and snowboard slopestyle to the roster of events at Sochi 2014.
The team announced by CFSA consists of two groups, Group A and Group B. The government-funded program, Own The Podium (OTP), will be funding the training and competition travel costs of Group A, while Group B will only receive funds for training costs for
now.
While OTP has revealed the amount of funds that will be released to winter sports for the 2011-12 season, the share of this fund allocated for the slopestyle team has not been made public yet.
The CFSA high performance programme director, David Mirota did express hope for extending the funding for the competition travel costs of Group B as well if and when they could acquire more funds and sponsorships.
Group A includes JF Houle, TJ Schiller, Alexis Godbout, Kaya Turski and Kim Lammare, whereas Group B includes Ian Cosco, Charles Gagnier, Phil Casabon, Maude Raymond and Jessica Warll.
The selection of athletes in the Canadian national slopestyle ski team was based on their Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) rankings and performance in major contests.
The Canadian national team will spend September at a trampoline training camp in Toronto and make training trips to New Zealand and America in the fall.
Talking about the training programme and preparations for Sochi 2014, the four-time Winter X slopestyle gold medallist, Turski, said, “I think training will be different because most of us are used to being on our program and not being coached. It feels
great to have the support of medical staff, physios, and basically anything we need going into 2014. I think it's going to be a huge help both physically and emotionally.”
With the announcement of the Canadian ski slopestyle team, all eyes will now turn to the US Ski and Snowboard Association, which are yet to identify their team for the 2014 Winter Games.
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