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Grief and greatness mark historic year in sports
Loss of athletes overshadows record accomplishments by national teams
by Andrew Mitchell
Page 2 of 10
The Canadian ski cross and moguls teams finished on top of the world, and Canada claimed the overall Nations Cup title in freestyle for the eighth time in the past nine years with athletes combining for 37 medals on the World Cup tour.
On the pro tours, Canadians also ranked highly.
In the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) World Tour, Montreal's Kaya Turski placed first overall in the sport of slopestyle while Squamish's Rosalind Groenewoud won the overall title for halfpipe. On the TTR World Tour for snowboarding, Sebastien Toutant placed first overall in slopestyle with big results everywhere he went. Spencer O'Brien won the women's slopestyle title at both O'Neill Evolution and the World Snowboarding Championships, and placed first on the Dew Tour.
This season the snowboard team is looking even stronger with Mark McMorris catching fire at the Dew Cup opener at Breckenridge with wins in slopestyle and big air, and O'Brien placing second in women's slopestyle. Justin Dorey won the first men's ski halfpipe, and Kaya Turski the first women's slopestyle.
Here's an abbreviated list of some of the highlights and firsts for Canadians and locals this past year:
A winter for the history books
• The struggling Canadian Alpine Ski Team finished the 2012 season on a high note with the men's speed team earning four medals in three consecutive races, including Jan Hudec's first career gold, and the women's technical team winning the group's first medals since 2010. Erin Mielzynksi became the first Canadian woman to win a slalom race since 1971, while Michele-Marie Gagnon earned her first career medal.
• In freestyle, the season got underway with the news that ski halfpipe and slopestyle would be included in the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, turning the spotlight to a group of Canadian athletes that have been working for years at the pro level with next to no national support although they ranked among the best in the world. Some of the freeski highlights from 2012 include Rosalind Groenewoud and Kaya Turski winning overall pro tour titles for halfpipe and slopestyle respectively, while athletes individually won some of the biggest pro events including the X Games, Dew Tour, Grand Prix and the AFP World Championships in Whistler.
The team is off to a strong start to the 2012-2013 season as well, with skiers winning five medals at the opening Dew Cup event in Colorado — Justin Dorey and Mike Riddle were first and third in men's halfpipe, Rosalind Groenewoud was third in women's halfpipe and Kayak Turski and Pemberton's Yuki Tsubota were first and second in women's slopestyle. It was one of Tsubota's best results to date in slopestyle, but not entirely unexpected after she placed third in the AFP World Championships in Whistler back in April to wrap up her rookie year. It's a safe bet she'll be moving up from the Canadian Freestyle Ski Team's "B" Group soon!
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