Beatty and Bouchard golden in Gangwon
Canada's first two gold medals of the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics come on day nine.
Team Canada picked up their first two gold medals of the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games on Sunday, in the men’s freestyle ski and snowboard big air events.
Charlie Beatty, one of Canada’s opening ceremony flag bearers, earned the country’s first gold medal with a standout performance in the final of the freestyle skiing big air event. After his three runs, Beattie earned a score of 177.75, and a spot on the top step of the podium — ahead of Japan’s Olly Nicholls (174.50) and New Zealand’s Luke Harrold (172.25).
Beatty, the reigning junior world champion in slopestyle, finished 10th in slopestyle a few days ago, so landing on top of the podium with a standout performance in big air felt like redemption for the 16-year-old from Horseshoe Valley, Ontario.
“I’m very relieved,” Beatty said afterwards. “Not putting it down in slopestyle was a little frustrating for me so I had to come out here and really buckle down. To have this medal around my neck is a big relief for me.
“My second run was my favourite one, the switch double cork 1440 tail grab. I went pretty big and was able to stomp the landing pretty good and held the grab, so I think that gave me a pretty good score to end up winning the gold medal.”
Three days ago, Eli Bouchard won a silver medal for Canada in the men’s snowboard slopestyle, and on Sunday he became the first Canadian to win multiple medals at Gangwon 2024 when he took gold in the snowboard big air event.
Bouchard was top of the pile in the qualifying round, and kept that going into the final, winning the gold medal with a score of 183.25. He beat American silver medallist Oliver Martin (179.50) by nearly four points, and finished over 30 points higher than Campbell Melville Ives of New Zealand, who picked up 153.00 points.
“I feel really great,” Bouchard said afterwards. “I worked hard for that and am really happy with my runs today. Practice didn’t go that great, but I am happy that I managed to do it (in the final).
“I got a gold and a silver, so yeah, I think it went great. This was a great experience.”
The 16-year-old from Lac-Beauport, Quebec will be a contender for the closing ceremony flag bearer due to his standout performances in Gangwon.
Anthony Shelly got Canada’s only other medal of the Games thus far, a silver medal in the men’s snowboard cross on day one. There are a few more days of competition before the final events on February 1, with the closing ceremonies coming later that day.
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