With many of Yukon’s winter athletes at the Arctic Winter Games in the Northwest Territories, four young freestyle skiers who will have to wait until 2020 for their turn went down to Kelowna, British Columbia to test their skills on the slopes.

The Freestyle Ski Association athletes competed in the Big White slopestyle event which was run in a doubleheader format, with athletes taking part in two separate competitions in back-to-back days. Team head coach Graham Pollock said he thinks this style of competition is a very good way to learn for up-and-coming athletes as on the second day of competition they get the chance to change things up and fix things they may not have landed in their first event.

“They get a second chance to improve their scores and see how they do, see where their faults were and improve them for the next day,” he said.

On the first day of competition, 11-year-old skier Anwyn Tillett won the bronze medal in the 12 and under female division. Fresh off her gold medal win in Whistler, Tillett landed a second run score of 54.5 to take third on the podium.

Right back on the course the next day against the same competitors, Tillett rose to the top of the standings with a first run score of 66.5 – 12 points higher than her third-place run in the first event.

“I changed the top half of the rail section,” Tillett said on the gold-medal run.

“I kind of did nothing the first day and then something the second day.”

Tillett, who just started skiing last season, is the only female skier in the Yukon freestyle competitive program.

She only participated in one competition last season and has rose to the podium quickly in both her competitions in 2018. In the 12 and under male division, Kieran Ritchie placed seventh on the first day with a score of 53.7 and he would have a similar run in the second even with a score of 53.5, good for sixth spot.

In the first day of competition, all athletes had a top 10 finish with Zeb Blower coming fifth out of 14 competitors in the male 14 and under division. Max Logan, in the 16 and under male category, placed seventh.

“It was amazing for them,” Pollock said of the competition. “They got to see what the field looks like, what they have to do coming into next year’s Canada Winter Games.”

The competition wrapped up the out of town season for the young skiers and their remaining competition will be the Yukon Championships on Mount Sima April 14-15.

The ski team are also watching their soon to be teammates competing at the AWG as freestyle skiing will be joining the program at the 2020 Games in Whitehorse. Another inspiration for the young skiers is the success of older Yukon skiers on the national stage. Currently, slopestyle skier Etienne Geoffroy-Gagnon is competing in a World Cup event in Quebec and with his success on the NorAm and, Canada Cup tour this season, hopes to qualify for the Canadian NextGen squad.

“It is really good for the younger competitors to see that there are other possibilities for them,” Pollock said. “We come from a smaller territory and we have some of the top athletes in Canada. It means we can compete at that top level.”

Although freestyle skiing encompasses several different events, the Yukoners focus on and have success in the slopestyle event which consists of a series of rails and jumps. Pollock said the park at Mount Sima created for them by the builders and staff allows for them to have a course for them to train on early in the season.

“Our main focus is slopestyle based on weather and it’s purely based on the fact we have such an accommodating mountain staff that we’re able to do anything,” he said.