Nineteen-year-old Jack Collins went to the WinSport halfpipe on Tuesday full of inspiration and motivation to train, after many Canadian athletes who train and compete on the hill have won Olympic medals.
Mikael Kingsbury won a gold medal in men’s moguls. Alex Gough won Canada’s first ever luge medal, taking home the bronze. Three of Canada’s medal so far come in the sport of slopestyle.
“It’s pretty great that WinSport is one of the top level facilities and it’s my home hill, so it’s awesome.”
More than half of Canada’s medals so far come from events you can train and compete in at WinSport.
“We’ve had 171 athletes train on our site this year, so we’re really involved and also having some of our own athletes win medals is very special.”
Even leisure skiers like Stacey Wilson and her four-year-old son August have been caught up in the excitement, watching Team Canada excel over the weekend.
On Tuesday, August couldn’t wait to hit progression park and ride the chairlift for the very first time.
“It inspires us to get out there right,” Wilson said. “We were watching slopestyle and there are great facilities right here and so it’s exciting to be here taking part in that.”
Canada won 25 medals at the Olympic games in Sochi, Russia four years ago.