Young Olympic hopefuls compete on Edmonton ski hill

More than 100 young skiers took part in freestyle skiing competitions at Sunridge Ski Area over the weekend, showing off their skills and competing against other young Olympic hopefuls.

Edmonton Freestyle Ski Club held a Freestyle Alberta club competition, where young athletes, like 10-year-old Brody, charged down a mogul course on Saturday, then threw themselves off the slopestyle jumps on Sunday.

Athletes were judged on their skills and tricks, and medals were awarded to the top three kids in each age group.

“I love doing competitions. Freestyle is more my thing, Its basically just tricks, like front flips and stuff, but we also did Mogul which is over there, and I placed 2nd in it,” says Brody who is a freestyle skier.

“It’s so fun and so exciting to be wearing a competition bib, to be counted down by the starter and to go into the course of everyone cheering you on like you’re a pro athlete. And it gives them the feeling that all that training and hard work they put in actually means something,” says Greg Cruickshank, Chief of Competition. “It really inspires them to also connect with new athletes, make new friends and to see what they need to do to move to the next level.”

Brody says he has been skiing since he was 2 years old and says it’s competitions like these that will help get him onto the Olympic podium one day. “They asked me what I hope to do in 10 years and I want to be a professional skier in the Olympics,” says Brody.

“These are young, developing athletes who are competing, some of them in their first competition ever, and some of them are moving on to higher level competitions after they compete today,” says Cruickshank.

This was the second time the Edmonton Freestyle Ski Club have hosted a club competition in the past 15 years (first time since 2018).