Canadian freestyle skier Evan McEachran put an end to a two-year wait when he captured slopestyle bronze at the World Cup stop in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., on Sunday.
The 24-year-old from Oakville, Ont., posted a score of 93.00 on his second and final run at Mammoth Mountain to secure his fourth career World Cup podium finish and first since 2019.
“I made some errors on the rails on my first run, even though I had never had that problem during training, so I focused my energy on my second run,” said McEachran.
“I was shocked [by my score] and really happy! Just being on the podium means a lot to me.”
Alexander Hall of the U.S. claimed gold on the final run of the day with a score of 95.50 — bumping McEachran out of silver position.
Fellow American Nick Goepper was in position to win it all following his second run, but he ultimately took silver after finishing just 0.75 away from Hall with 94.75.
Édouard Therriault of Lorraine, Que., and Calgary’s Mark Hendrickson finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
Teal Harle of Campbell River, B.C., was 14th, while Max Moffatt of Caledon, Ont., finished 16th — meaning all Canadians in the men’s event qualified for the 16-competitor final.
Moffatt is the top Canadian in the overall slopestyle World Cup standings after two events this season with 95 points. He won silver at the opening World Cup of the season in Austria in November.
Hall is in second spot with 111 points, followed by Goepper (104) and Birk Ruud of Norway (100).
McEachran, who is now ninth in the standings with 60 points, will opt out of the next World Cup event to train before competing in the X Games in Aspen, Colorado in two weeks.
“It’s crazy that the X Games and the Olympics are back-to-back! I grew up watching the X Games and they’ve always been a dream of mine. Having our sport included in the Olympics is another amazing opportunity for us!” said McEachran, who hopes to be part of the Canadian contingent in Beijing next month.
Asselin narrowly misses women’s podium
In the women’s event, Olivia Asselin of Lac-Beauport, Que., finished one spot short of the podium as the top Canadian.
Asselin had a score of 89.00 on her first run, which was eventually edged by American Maggie Voisin with 90.00 on her second run.
Kelly Sildary of Estonia earned the gold medal with a 93.75, while China’s Eileen Gu posted a 91.00 run for silver.
The third of six freestyle skiing slopestyle World Cup events will take place next weekend in Font Romeu, France.
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