Freestyle Canada is pleased to unveil the list of athletes who will be competing in the World Championships at Park City and Solitude Mountain, Utah, in the ski Big Air, slopestyle and halfpipe disciplines.
The selection process for the Canadian teams culminated with the X Games and the FIS World Cup in Seiser Alm, Italy this past weekend. For the first time in the history of the World Championships, Big Air will be among the scheduled competitions. This addition reflects the IOC’s decision to include it as an Olympic event at the Beijing Games in 2022.
The following athletes will represent Canada in the ski Big Air on February 2 and in slopestyle on February 5 and 6.
| Alex Beaulieu-Marchand (Quebec City, QC) | Yuki Tsubota (Whistler, BC) |
| Evan McEachran (Oakville, ON) | Elena Gaskell (Vernon, BC) |
| Teal Harle (Campbell River, BC) | |
| Philippe Langevin (Mont-Tremblant, QC) |
Alternate: Max Moffatt (Caledon, ON)
Ski halfpipe enjoys a long tradition at the Eagle Halfpipe on Park City Mountain. This history includes the World Championships in 2011, when three Canadians earned podium spots: Rosalind Groenewoud (gold), Keltie Hansen (bronze) and Mike Riddle (gold).
The following athletes will compete at the Park City ski halfpipe event from February 7 to 9.
| Noah Bowman (Calgary, AB) | Cassie Sharpe (Comox, BC) |
| Simon d’Artois (Whistler, BC) | Rachael Karker (Erin, ON) |
| Brendan Mackay (Calgary, AB) | |
| Evan Marineau (Calgary, AB) |
The selection process
Freestyle Canada follows a two-part process for selecting athletes for the World Championship teams. First, FIS sets a maximum quota of four eligible athletes per gender and per event. Freestyle Canada then compiles the results according to the following criteria:
For Big Air and slopestyle, the athlete selection period runs from January 1, 2018 to January 30, 2019 inclusively. The men must obtain a top-16 standing in the first 50% of a Tier 1 event and the women, a top-10 result with the same conditions or a victory in a Tier 2 event.
For the halfpipe, the athlete selection period runs from December 1, 2017 to January 31, 2019. Then:
- All eligible athletes are ranked by their three (3) highest scores during the selection period;
- In the event of a tie, the athlete with the higher score in the eligible 2018-2019 World Cups for the selection period will rank first. If this still results in a tie, the athlete with the next highest score in the eligible 2018-2019 World Cups will rank first. The process continues until the tie is broken. If need be, scores from the 2017-2018 FIS World Cup season are used.