March 19 was a big day for Maia Schwinghammer. It is, after all, the day she qualified for her first Olympic Games.
The Whistlerite reached into her bag of tricks at the FIS World Championships in Engadin, Switzerland to produce a bronze medal-winning score of 74.92 points. She put herself within striking distance of victorious Frenchwoman Perrine Laffont (77.92) and silver medallist Hinako Tomitaka (75.15)—all the while punching her ticket to Milano Cortina 2026.
"Oh my gosh, it's still … I haven't really processed it yet," Schwinghammer admitted nearly two months after the fact. "Getting that third place at World Championships was incredible, and got me that pre-qualification for the Games. Pretty unbelievable feeling, and then to come home after the season to celebrate with friends and family."
Schwinghammer revealed 2024-25 was the longest campaign she and her moguls peers have ever been through. Fatigue built up, perhaps contributing to less-than-ideal February results in Beidahu, China and Almaty, Kazakhstan (she didn't make the top 10 at either World Cup stop). That left only two more chances to pre-qualify for the next Olympics: Livigno, Italy and the World Championships.
In Livigno, Schwinghammer missed the podium by just over a point. It was all or nothing come Engadin.
"The course was really, really challenging," she remembered. "We had super crazy conditions with melt and freeze. Last event of the season: everybody's tired, everybody's sort of at the end of their wits, but I'm happy I was able to manage the emotions and the pressure."
When asked how she feels about picturing herself in Milano Cortina, Schwinghammer said: "I have shivers even just thinking about answering this question. It's hard to describe. My whole life has always been about becoming an Olympian. It's just an absolute privilege to represent Canada at major games and I really, really can't wait. It's the kid in me—I get to live childhood Maia's dreams. That's what I'm doing right now."
'We've been working our butts off'
As a kid, Schwinghammer's goals of greatness burst into life when she watched Jennifer Heil take silver at Vancouver 2010. Now she is the top Canadian female moguls athlete who's already proving herself with World Championships success and an inaugural World Cup gold this January in Val St. Côme, Que.
Even so, the local star tries not to follow in the footsteps of past greats like Heil and Justine Dufour-Lapointe. Her road is very much her own—but she's not alone, with compatriots like Laurianne Desmarais-Gilbert, Maya Mikkelsen and Jessica Linton helping shoulder the load.
"Two years ago, it was a lot smaller of a girls' crew. Even this year, there were some World Cups where I was the only female competing for Canada. Now we have, I think, eight girls on the team and quotas filled for [the next season opener] in Ruka," said Schwinghammer. "It's really nice to see the progression of not only myself, but these girls I've grown up skiing with: Maya, Jessica. We've been working our butts off.
"The level of competition has improved so much. The girls are out there sending it: there's cork 10s, there's cork grabs, people are getting more creative. FIS put out a post a couple of weeks ago saying there were 11 different women on the World Cup podium this winter. That's got to be record-breaking … for a while it was so dominated by the top four [but] as a whole community, we've stepped up."
As a result, Schwinghammer will be tested in her bid to replicate Dufour-Lapointe's 2014 Olympic triumph. A lineup of worthy foes await: Laffont, Jaelin Kauf of the United States, and currently-injured Australian Olympic champ Jakara Anthony to name a few. The Whistlerite is looking to level up her game, all the while being a role model for her teammates and anybody else who might cross her path.
Sport is hard and doubts creep in, but Schwinghammer tries to practice what she preaches: don't give up, don't let go and enjoy the process—because it's a privilege.
