Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Ski halfpipe team announced

Olympic status means team to get federal funding
66875_l

The confirmation that ski halfpipe would be in the 2014 Games may have sent a lot of countries scrambling, but not so for Canada. Canada has had a grass roots national team for four years now, with athletes contributing their own money to fund a full-time coach and travel around the world competing.

Now, with full World Cup and Olympic status, Canada Superpipe has been rolled into the successful Canadian Freestyle Ski Association with the same group of athletes as before joining the new national team.

Trennon Paynter, who has been coaching the team since the beginning, will remain the team's head coach. Under his guidance, Canadian halfpipe athletes have dominated in every type of competition, from top pro events like the Dew Tour and X Games to the World Cup circuit. In the 2011 World Championships, two athletes - Rosalind Groenewoud and Mike Riddle - walked away with titles, while Keltie Hansen and Sarah Burke were third and fourth on the women's side.

Status means that the team is now eligible for federal funding through Own The Podium and other programs, as well as athlete funding from Sport Canada, and a share of funding and support from the successful Canadian Freestyle Ski Association.

The halfpipe team now includes nine athletes. The "A" Group is comprised of Rosalind Groenewoud (world champion), Sarah Burke (X Games and World Cup champion), Keltie Hansen (third at worlds), Justin Dorey (first at World Skiing Invitation, second overall on pro tour) and Mike Riddle (world champion). "B" Group is Megan Gunning (silver in 2009 world championship), Dania Assaly (first at Dew Tour in Breckenridge), Matt Margetts (second in European and North Face Open) and Noah Bowman (junior world champion). Both Burke and Riddle call Squamish home.

"I think this is already a proven team in terms of what these athletes have done in major events," said David Mirota, the high performance director for Canadian Freestyle. "Now, with a combination of Trennon's coaching and support from (Own The Podium) we can really maximize and improve their performances by giving them tools that we have used successfully in our moguls and aerials programs, like sport science and medical support."

The team will be officially located in Whistler through the summer with the first training camp at the end of May.

Pique caught up with coach Trennon Paynter to talk about what's new with ski halfpipe.

Pique: The announcement mentioned the funding from Own The Podium. What does that funding mean for the team now you're in the Olympics and with the CFSA?

Trennon Paynter: It's huge. It takes the pressure of funding and maintaining a team program away from the athletes, now one is being provided for them. I've been hired now by Freestyle Canada to coach the national team, and we're going to get an assistant coach. The team will increase (in size) slightly, which is great because a couple of other Canadian athletes are getting podiums at international events, and the way the team was we couldn't sustain more athletes than what we had - it was a one-man show. Now we're going to be taking care of all the top Canadian halfpipe skiers.

 

Pique: What does that look like?

TP: For the athletes it means all kinds of support that was never there before, like full time access to physiotherapy and a lot more sport services and sport science from Own The Podium, from (Freestyle Association), from (Canadian Sports Centre-Pacific). That's a lot of access that wasn't there before, and we'll be getting some direct funding, too - as opposed to before when all the athletes were paying to create a team budget and fly me around the world to be their coach. Now we're getting some things paid for. Some athletes are going to be getting flights, their accommodation paid for, so it's huge for the athletes. And aside from all the tangible things like that to directly support them, the whole mental and emotional support they get now that they've got their country and the national spots organization backing them will be great as well.

 

Pique: You've got two world champions, the overall World Cup champion; you're in the Olympics. Are your athletes now qualified for Athlete Assistance Program funding from Sport Canada?

TP: None of the athletes has ever been carded, which is another thing. Now, the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association is applying for carding for our athletes, but my prediction is that the results indicate that they should qualify, so that's even more support coming in ($1,500 per month for top senior athletes). Obviously we have a couple of things going for us: the Olympic announcement being one and just the success of the program being the other. We have both world champions, the World Cup overall winner, X Games gold medallists, the World Cup wins - it's hard to have better results... we're in the Olympics and we've had a ton of proven success.

 

Pique: Are there any issues with sponsors that cropped up, now that you're part of the freestyle association?

TP: We definitely had discussions with the CFSA about that because there's such a strong professional side to our sport that doesn't exist, say, with moguls. There's no pro moguls circuit anymore, or X Games for mogul skiers that's on top of World Cups and the World Championships. Because we do, it's definitely got to be treated a little differently. The X Games is still the highest calibre event until the Olympics.

The CFSA knows this, and the way they approached it was great. They basically said they weren't here to take over the program; they just wanted to help support it. We won't have a team uniform, for example, because for a lot of our athletes their clothing sponsors are their main source of income.

The big thing is that all our goals are exactly in line, which is to do everything we can to get people to the top of the podium in Russia.

 

Pique: Is training different now that you have official status? Is anything going to be different?

TP: It's hard to say. The reason these athletes have been so successful already is because they have that commitment and work ethic on their own. There really wasn't a program forcing them into training and working hard, they did it because they were driven to be that way.

It is different. We're in a system with more check and balances in place to ensure athletes are working hard and progressing, but they've already been doing that and being dedicated without the changes. In some regards it will be a little more quote-unquote "serious" but the actions and results of the athletes are already serious. I really don't see it changing too much, because we're going to stay true to the heart of the sport. We do it because it's fun. It's freeskiing. What we've been doing is great; we just want to do it even better.

 

Pique: There's still a possibility that slopestyle will be added. Has there been any discussion of what happens if athletes want to compete in both events?

TP: That's going to be a tough one. Certainly every one of the athletes in halfpipe does slopestyle to some extent, whether it's just for fun or more seriously, and some are doing both right up to the X Games level and will do both when it doesn't conflict.

It's a pretty tough call, because what we're seeing - even before the Olympic announcement - is that there are fewer athletes doing both events. Three or four years ago a lot of athletes did both events, or most of them did, but both pipe and slopestyle are so competitive on their own that it's getting harder and harder to be really successful in both, you really have to spread yourself thin.

I've talked about it with most athletes and I'm pretty confident they'll stick with halfpipe as their Olympic goal and only do slopestyle when it's possible and it doesn't conflict with their goals of being the world's greatest pipe skiers.

 

Pique: What's your sense? Are we getting slopestyle?

TP: I have no idea to be honest. I heard credible sources saying both things. I think it's definitely happening but whether it's in 2014 or they defer to 2018... I wouldn't want to bet either way.

The biggest thing is that the halfpipe venue is already in place. Slopestyle means creating a whole new venue.

 

Pique: What's your plan for summer training?

TP: We're training on the glacier, and we're stoked about that. We have the CFSA partnering with Momentum Ski Camp and using the Whistler Blackcomb pipe cutter to build a 22-foot pipe with an airbag at the bottom of it. It will be nice to have some training at home for a change, and with the pipe cutter we should have some awesome training. The athletes will still do a little bit of coaching as well, but we'll also do a lot of training with a team.

 

Pique: With no uniforms next year, how will we recognize the Canadian athletes?

TP: They're the ones on the top of the podium! Seriously, we don't know what we're going to do. I know at worlds we used impermanent stick-on patches of freestyle sponsors at Canada Post because there was some funding for the team at Worlds. I know that FIS needs a logo of the national association, like a sticker, on your helmet. We haven't really locked into those details yet... but the details will be ironed out over time.