Back at Tremblant for a second consecutive year, the World Cup of Freestyle promises to deliver thrills and chills. The big event will be held on the South Side, on the upper part of the Flyng Mile during the January 26/27 weekend. A hundred or so athletes from fifteen countries will compete singly in the exciting event. The members of the Canadian team will be present, plus Perrine Laffond, Yulia Galysheva, Matt Graham and Daichi Hara.

Home-grown champions

Mikaël Kingsbury and his female colleague Justin Dufour-Lapointe will be back this year. Holder of two Olympic medals, including gold in Pyeongchang and silver in Sochi, Mikaël has 51World Championship victories and brought home, in the 2017-2018 season, his seventh consecutive crystal globe. The brilliant young athlete won his first World Cup moguls event in China at the age of eighteen. Since then, he has been collecting medals and records and is hoping to take gold this year at Tremblant

Born in Montreal and one of the famous Dufour-Lapointe sisters, Justine began her training in freestyle skiing at Mont Blanc, in Saint-Faustin-Lac-Carré. It’s worth betting that this sparkling, dynamic young champion, – who won gold in Sochi in 2014 and silver at the Pyeongchang Olympics – will again be a standout at the event, as she was last year when she took the gold.

A high-level performance

The event is Olympic in calibre. The athletes must compete on a steep 235-metre slope,punctuatedbyturns and bumps, and complete two jumps with spins and rotations…and all this in 30 seconds. Judged on their speed, the quality of their turns and the danger level of their jumps, the athletes offer up the best of themselves.

Improvements in the facilities

To allow those who hope to see the most exciting points of the event from close at hand, the organizers will open a marked walking corridor from the South Side

base to the top of the run. All along the path, there will be benches and water stations where people can even obtain hot drinks. “For reasons of safety,” the organizers advise, “we nonetheless strongly recommend the use of crampons or snowshoes.”

Last year, there were some comments about how the site was organized. “To achieve Olympic standards,”explains Marc Monchamp, the event’s delegate producer, “the only run that works for the Cup is the Flying Mile. We are also constrained by the topography, which limits us with regard to, for example, widening the walking corridor.”

Skiers will also be able to obtain tickets at reduced ratesfor the Flying Mile lift. In addition, a big screen with fireplace, chairs and heating systems set up on the Place Saint-Bernard for the occasion will allow fans to stay at the base of the mountain and follow the action. Free parking will be available, as well.

After the races, bars, clubs and restaurants will, as always, welcome the parade of champions and their admirers.

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