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'Toots' golden at Stockholm

Canadian snowboard team ready for World Cup season

One of the biggest snowboard events of the year is the annual Big Air competition in downtown Stockholm, Sweden, with tens of thousands of spectators surrounding the jump site.

This year they were all cheering for Quebec's Sebastien Toutant. Although he's just 18 years old, he's already an established rider and on the leader board of the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour. But his win in Stockholm was huge, with Toutant earning 51.3 points after landing a frontside 1080 double cork, a backside 1260 double cork and a backside 1080 double cork in three runs.

Petja Piiroinen of Finland and Patrick Burgener of Switzerland were second and third.

"I'm always nervous, although I have been to many competitions already," said Toutant. "But the more I do the more confident I get. I'm stoked that I was able to win this as the event and the level of riding in the finals was super good."

Toutant may be Olympic bound in 2014. Last season he won the first ever slopestyle event held at the national snowboard championships. The sport of snowboard slopestyle is currently being considered for inclusion by the International Olympic Committee. A decision will be made in 2011.

The Big Air competition wasn't the only snowboarding event underway last week. Copper Mountain hosted a Nor-Am Cup for alpine snowboarders, which attracted an international field eager to fit in races before the start of the World Cup season.

Caroline Calve won the opening parallel giant slalom, followed by Selina Joerg and Isabella Laboeck of Germany. Other Canadians in the top 15 were Ekaterina Zavialova in eighth place, Ariane Lavigne 10th, Cora Fellows 12th, Zoe Rubin 14th and Megan Farrell 15th.

Canada's top male racers skipped the event. Patrick Farrell was the top male in eighth place, followed by Steve Barlow in 10th, Darren Gardner in 11th, Matthew Carter in 13th and Richard Evanoff in 15th.

In the parallel slalom Arian Lavigne was the top Canadian in third. Caroline Calve was sixth, Ekaterina Zavialova seventh, Cora Fellows ninth, Megan Farrell 14th and Alexandra Villiard 15th.

Patrick Farrell moved up to fourth on the men's side. Matthew Carter was ninth, Darren Gardner 10th and Indrik Trahan 12th.

The other snowboard story this week was the announcement that Olympic silver medallist Mike Robertson would miss the first part of the 2011 season after sustaining a concussion during a training camp in New Zealand in the fall. It was his second concussion in sixth months, and under the advice of Canada Snowboard physicians he will miss the opening World Cup snowboardcross events in December. Doctors will reassess after the Christmas break.

It's a new era for Canada Snowboard. Tom McIllfaterick stepped down as the CEO in October after guiding the team for more than seven years. McIllfaterick said he would like to stay involved, but was unable to commit another four years at the helm to see the team through the 2014 Olympic Games.

Steven Hills was appointed as the interim CEO in early November while the organization seeks out a full-time chief executive.

Aside from changes in leadership, Canada Snowboard is on firm ground after a successful Games in 2010.

While sports teams usually see a drop in funding after an Olympic cycle - and especially a home Olympics - as well as the loss of athletes through retirement, Canada Snowboard is taking a different approach preparing for the future.

With their success in the 2010 Games - gold medals by Maëlle Ricker in snowboardcross and Jasey-Jay Anderson in the parallel giant slalom, a silver medal by Mike Robertson in snowboardcross, and two athletes qualifying for the finals in halfpipe (Mercedes Nicoll and Justin Lamoureux) - the team is guaranteed funding through Own The Podium and other sports funding program.

As a result of that funding and strong sponsorship, the team was able to announce a roster of 31 athletes for the 2010-2011 season, which includes the FIS World Snowboard Championships in Spain in January.

That roster will likely be increased with the announcement that the sport of slopestyle will be included in the championships this year for the first time, clearing a path that could end up in the Olympics in 2014.

In snowboardcross, the team includes Maëlle Ricker and Dominique Maltais on the women's side, with nine men taking part in the program: Francois Boivin, Dan Csokonay, Robert Fagan, Kevin Hill, Jake Holden, Chris Robanske, Mike Robertson and Tom Velisek.

With the retirement of alpine snowboard veterans Jasey-Jay and Alexa Loo the alpine program is rebuilding, although there is a lot of young talent on both the men's and women's squads. The women's team includes veterans Caroline Calve and Ekaterina Zavialova, who will be joined by Megan Farrell, Ariane Lavigne and Marianne Leeson. Matthew Morison and Michaell Lambert will anchor the men's team and will be joined by Steve Barlow, Matthew Carter and Darren Gardner.

The freestyle team includes Sarah Conrad, Alex Duckworth, Mercedes Nicoll and Palmer Taylor on the women's side, with the men's team comprised of Jeff Batchelor, Justin Lamoureux, Derek Livingston and Brad Martin. That team will likely see a few additions with slopestyle and big air athletes.

The team doesn't expect to see as much success as in the past two seasons where national team riders set new records for medal wins. In 2009 the team earned 26 podiums (including three world championship medals), and in 2010 finished with 28 medals - the most of any nation on the circuit.

However, with a mix of veterans and newcomers, the team's new high performance director, Robert Joncas, still expects to be competitive.

"With the cancellation of a World Cup race this fall and the departure of Jasey-Jay Anderson, expectations for number of podiums on the FIS World Cup tour will be less this year in comparison with last year," he said. "But our goal remains for our teams to be very competitive and relentlessly ride for the podium at every occasion."