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Eddie Hicks sets sights even higher for 2012

Whistler-based mogul skier gets World Cup nod
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In any other country, Eddie Hicks would already be a member of the World Cup mogul team. He has back-to-back North American Cup crowns, and has made the most of a limited number of World Cup starts — two top fives and a 13th place result in the last three events last season.

But Hicks is also a member of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Team and that means sharing a roster with the current Olympic champion, World Cup rookie of the year Mikael Kingsbury and five other athletes that have either earned World Cup podiums of their own or are close to it.

Luckily for Hicks — a Langley resident who grew up skiing for the freestyle club in Whistler and lists Whistler as his home — a spot just opened up. It was recently announced that Olympic champion Alex Bilodeau would stay at home for most of the 2011-2012 competitive season to train and improve his skills, leaving an open spot on the World Cup team. For Hicks, it's the opportunity he's been waiting for.

"Alex's decision will impact not just myself, but everyone on the tour," he said. "Despite being fourth at the last World Cup of the season in 2011, my spot at the first event in the 2012 season was in question up until recently and Alex's decision definitely played a part in that. What it really does for our team is give all the 'B' guys a little breathing room as we currently have eight World Cup skiers and a maximum of seven World Cup spots.

"It also impacts because Alex is a guy who can challenge for the podium every day, and I think his absence creates a lot more room for others to challenge for the podium."

Hicks has exceeded all of his personal goals the last two seasons. Rather than gun for wins on the North American Cup tour, Hicks was gunning for points — he wanted to earn a spot on the tour, but more importantly to post the kind of scores you need to win at the highest level. He made the best of the opportunity, and when he joined the World Cup team later in the season he showed he could compete with the top skiers in the world. When he finished fourth at Norway, it was behind Guibault Colas of France, and Canada's Mikael Kingsbury and Alex Bilodeau.

"After exceeding my goals last season, I'm simply going to raise the bar to a new level, set new goals and try to exceed them again," he said.

"This season I'm looking to hop on the podium a couple times and finish at least within the top eight on the Grand Prix."

He'll likely be competing with his own teammates to reach the podium, but as Hicks explained it's not personal — the athletes do celebrate each other's results.

"Our team atmosphere is actually very healthy, we have a great team spirit which is extremely rare for an individual sport — especially one where the team is the strongest it's maybe ever been," he said. "Our mogul team's (FIS) points alone would have put us third in the overall Nation's Cup standings.

"The reality is that we're largely competing with each other to gain top results ... but we all accept this fact and understand that we're all here to accomplish the same thing.

"We swept the Nor-Am finals podium last season and that was something I had wanted to be a part of for a long time. Mikael Kingsbury and I have spoken a lot about sharing the podium, and after seeing the last generation sweep twice and the World Cup level in the 2010 season, it's really something I would like to be a part of. The only thing better than being on the podium is sharing it with your teammates."

To prepare for this season Hicks said it was business as usual in the summer. Last summer the emphasis was on speed, and that was also a big focus over the summer, as well as jumping. "In the past I've had trouble producing the kind of quality I'm capable of on the bottom air with my cork 720, but all my best singles results have come with a cork 7 as my bottom air. It's something that needs to be there more consistently this season."

Being consistent also means sticking to the plan, no matter what obstacles are there. For example, he arrived at the World Cup in Are, Sweden last season and had only one day of training. Suffering from jet lag he got about two hours sleep before the World Cup the next day, but still managed a fifth place result.

"I was able to really narrow my focus and be very clear about what I had to do to get a result when I stepped into the gate," he said. "This was a really important event for me because it really proved to myself what I had already discovered at Nor-Am events — that to perform at the World Cup level I just need to remain calm, focused, stay within myself and execute the game plan my coaches and I have spent so much time developing."

The coming season could be a big stepping-stone for Hicks. There are no world championships and the Olympics are still two seasons away, but strong results on the first part of the World Cup tour will secure a spot with the national team for next season — a world championship and Olympic qualifier year.

"This season is very important, but ultimately doesn't mean much at all for us when it comes to the Olympics," said Hicks. "Qualifying for the Canadian men's team going to Sochi in 2014 will be extremely difficult..."