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Freestyle team confident heading into 2014 Games

Young, talented Team looking to win at least five medals in Sochi
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Anybody with questions regarding how competitive our Olympic athletes are heading into the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi should have been at a meet and greet hosted by the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association at their headquarters on Friday. The Canadian Olympic Committee released a new app for athletes that day that included a social game that challenged athletes to get each other's secret words and build the biggest network of friends — and within moments of figuring it out the freestylers were aggressively competing with each other to see who could top the leader board.

It was a telling moment for a team that's been conditioned to be intensely competitive and that, measure for measure, is the best on the planet right now with athletes combining to win eight of the last nine Nations Cup titles.

For Peter Judge, CEO of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association (CFSA), it's all about attitude.

"We're really trying to build a performance-on-demand mentality and mental toughness," he said. "It's inside of everything they do, event to the point where in our selection process we have a performance-on-demand component built into that. If they get used to having to perform on a certain day... it becomes part of their DNA.

"If you look at the Germans and U.S., they've been very good at conversion... they show up on the day of the event and win medals, and that's one thing that even now we're not very good at. We've certainly been getting better at it, and in certain sports like hockey where we have a cultural heritage we have it — and I think we're one of those sports at this point — but generally, across the board that hasn't been one of our biggest strengths as a nation, and it's something the Canadian Olympic Committee and sport community as a whole has identified as one area where we really want to improve."

Canada's goal going into 2014 is to replicate the team's home performance from 2010, where athletes won 14 gold medals (the most of any nation in a Winter Games) and placed third overall in the rankings. It's going to be a little tougher on foreign soil, especially with Russia investing heavily in its athletes, but Canada has a few aces up its sleeve.

One of those aces is funding. After 2010, Canada established permanent funding for the Own the Podium program to the tune of $30 million annually on top of other funding to sports and athletes. As well, in January the federal government boosted funding for 2014 athletes by an additional $31 million.

Another ace is the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to include several new sports in the 2014 program where Canada has proven medal contenders — snowboard slopestyle, luge team relay, team figure skate and ski halfpipe and slopestyle.

For Judge, it's a great position to be in, and he's optimistic the freestyle team will meet its own goal of winning at least five medals in Sochi. The team has already prequalified nine athletes for the Games.

"We'd like to have at least five medals, we feel that's very attainable for us," said Judge. "On the moguls side, on a good day, we should come away with three medals. On top of that we have strength on both the men's and women's side in halfpipe and in slopestyle, and great men's strength in aerials. That's seven of the eight disciplines (minus women's aerials) where we're in the hunt, and we have people out there slugging away every day for a podium. It's not a hit-or-miss thing, every day we're in there with the best."

Technically the sport of ski cross is also a freestyle discipline, although in Canada the sport comes under the alpine skiing banner. However, when it comes to filling quota spots, a maximum of 26 men and women, the success of ski cross could ultimately force the freestyle team to make some tough decisions.

Other aces that Judge holds are the relative youth of the team and the team's depth. Despite winning all those Nations Cup titles over the last decade, it's a new wave of athletes coming up through the ranks that is making the biggest difference.

"Right now our girls' moguls team has an average age of 21, whereas if we look at the U.S. — and we're pretty much shoulder-to-shoulder with their program — the average age is 27. We have a six-year jump on those guys in the 2014 to 2018 timeframe, and that's pretty much the story across the board in all of the disciplines, so we're pretty excited."

Judge's main concern for the team between now and Sochi is keeping athletes healthy and getting injured athletes ready to return. "One small accident or somebody getting sick in the middle of January, and they could be done," he said.

"Look at Annamay Pierse: she is a world champion in breaststroke but caught a bug at the Commonwealth Games and couldn't compete for Canada in 2012."

As well, only a handful of athletes with the team have Olympic experience. The team is working to make the event as familiar as possible by having the same people around as athletes would see at other event. They also sent a few athletes to the London Games this past summer so they could see an Olympics for themselves.

"The X Games are a large event, but they're a large ski and snowboard event and the Games are different," said Judge. "They're like a World Cup of soccer where the event transcends anything they've experienced."

mogul rivalry is not what you think

Two of Canada's top medal hopefuls, reigning Olympic champion Alexandre Bilodeau and two-time overall World Cup champion Mikael Kingsbury both attended the meet and greet.

Kingsbury, now 20 years old, just finished his third World Cup season with nine World Cup podiums and the World Championship title in single moguls, while Bilodeau, the dual moguls World Champion, re-established his dominance with a streak of three wins at the end of the season.

Both athletes are going for gold, but somehow they've managed to create one of the greatest rivalries in snow sports without being adversaries.

Bilodeau acknowledged that it's a great media story and great for their sport. "From my perspective it doesn't matter if he's from Canada or Australia, at the top of the hill he wants to beat me and I want to beat him," he said. "...It's a great story, and it brings a lot of attention to our sport — which is good, so I can't complain. Everybody is winning in this," he said.

Bilodeau said his focus is to defend his Olympic gold medal, after which point the 25-year-old will retire from competition and head back to school.

While the Olympics might generate extra attention and pressure, Bilodeau puts pressure on himself at every race anyway.

"You always want to win — whether it's training day or a race day or the Olympics, I want to be the best out there," he said. "At the World Cups I want to be the best and prepare myself, but my main objective is the Olympics."

As for Kingsbury, he says the pressure has been on since the first time he put on the yellow leaders' bib in the 2011 season. "Since I wore that jersey the first time I've never worn any other numbers, so that's great — and when you have that you're in the spotlight and everybody wants to get you, but I like being in that position."

Kingsbury's focus between now and the Games will be to work on small details. "There are a few little points that I need to learn and improve, and if I correct them then in Sochi I'll be in business," he said. "The high speed landings are one thing, and my turns of course — you have to make it look easy and smooth and be fast at the same time."

As for the competition with Bilodeau, Kingsbury said that both athletes take the sport seriously and both will be going for gold. "We're battling always for the top spot, but it's fun," he said. "At the end of the day we're from the same country and we'll be cheering together."

Howell an unlikely Olympian

Another athlete heading to the Games is Dara Howell, who has already prequalified in the sport of ski slopestyle along with teammate Kaya Turski. She's only 18, but placed second in the World Championships this year and has strong results on the pro tour as well.

"I definitely did not think I would make it this far this fast, it's huge for me really," she said. "I set pretty high goals for myself, but my parents didn't think I'd make X Games last year — they supported me of course, but it was kind of a far-fetched goal — but I made it and everything just sort of escalated from there."

Howell said she "freaks out" at pretty much every contest, and she's not expecting anything different at the Games. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing from her perspective because it keeps her focused.

"I'm just going to do my regular thing, and all the things I would normally do — I don't want to think of (the Olympics) differently than other contests," she said. "I have some new things I want to work on, new tricks and things, but you up your ante every year anyway."

Whistler's Yuki Tsubota is also a candidate to compete in the Games, but fell just short of Howell in reaching the CFSA's criteria for prequalification. Judge said she'd need two good results next season to guarantee herself a spot.

Aerials athletes eager to jump

In 2012, Olivier Rochon came out of nowhere to win the overall World Cup aerials title. The previous season he had been suspended by the team for breaking rules, and by the end of 2012 he had five podiums including his first gold medal.

The opportunity to defend the title fell apart during the 2013 season as the now 23-year-old Rochon battled injuries, including a groin pull. He did make the podium once with a bronze medal performance and placed fourth in the Olympic test event at Sochi, but otherwise it was a painful and frustrating year.

"For my first real injury, I thought I was taking it pretty good — although I was pretty frustrated by the end of the season because I couldn't jump and had to pull out. But now I know what it is and what I need to do, and if I can be patient then I'll come back from my injury even better."

While Rochon battled injuries, another young member of the team stepped up to the podium. Ontario's Travis Gerrits placed second at the World Ski Championships, and earned two more silver medals at World Cup events.

Gerrits is just 21 years old and is planning on sticking with the team as long as 2018. After that, he says it will be tough physically as the level of difficulty and forces seem to increase each year.

"These days we're coming into that jump at 70 kilometres an hour so in the end we go about 50 feet into the air," he explained. "So we're in the gym four or five times a week, working our legs, working on our core. The torque on your body while you're spinning in the air is amazing, and the impact on landing is huge."

Gerrits' goal is to be on the podium at the Olympics, but he has other goals as well in the events before and after the Games. "The Olympics are a huge focus and I'm definitely going to try and step on that podium, but I have other goals I'd like to accomplish this season," he said. "I would be on the podium every week if I could."