Harle and Gaskell open freestyle World Cup season on the podium
Team Canada’s freestyle skiing season is already off to a strong start courtesy of Teal Harle and Elena Gaskell. The two Canadians captured silver and bronze, respectively, on the first Freeski World Cup stop of the season in Chur, Switzerland.
Gaskell was up first on the podium after skiing to a big air bronze in the women’s competition. She put up an impressive score of 91.00 points on her first run to reach the third step of the podium.
Holy moly what a competition we just witnessed here at the Big Air Chur World Cup season opener…
— FISfreestyle (@FISfreestyle) October 22, 2021
Women’s top 3:
1) Tess Ledeux
2) Sarah Hoefflin
3) Elena Gaskell
Results – https://t.co/qqIxj3w70c#fisfreestyle #bigairchur #freeskiing pic.twitter.com/xnyFAufpNw
France’s Tess Ledeux won the event with 95.25 points, while host-country’s Sarah Hoefflin completed the podium in second place.
READ: Skiing and snowboarding towards Beijing 2022: What to watch in three snow sports
This marks Gaskell’s third World Cup podium. At just 20 years old, she’s already made a name for herself in the ski world after winning a Crystal Globe during the 2018-2019 season. She’ll be looking to compete in her first Olympic Games this winter at Beijing 2022.
Fellow Canadian Megan Oldham also took to the slopes, where she put up a score of 55.25.
READ: 2021-22 Winter Sport Competitions in Canada
Teal Harle was Canada’s second medallist of the day, taking a silver in the men’s event with a near perfect score of 98.00. Harle narrowly missed a gold medal after Austria’s Matej Svancer put up a score of 99.00 points on his second run. Norway’s Birk Ruud captured bronze in with 97.25 points.
Matej Svancer just used the last hit of the #BigAirChur to drop a 99.00 for the win. Pure pandemonium. What a show to start the season…
— FISfreestyle (@FISfreestyle) October 22, 2021
Men’s top 3:
1) Matej Svancer
2) Teal Harle
3) Birk Ruud
Results: https://t.co/qqIxj3w70c#fisfreestyle #fisfreeski pic.twitter.com/IhdR61wsyE
Harle previously represented Canada at PyeongChang 2018 where he qualified for the big air final. This is Harle’s sixth World Cup podium. He’s previously won two slopestyle golds, as well as a silver medal in big air and two bronze.
He was joined on the slopes by Max Moffat and Evan McEacheran, who finished in fifth and ninth.