Canadian freestyle skiers Naomi Urness and Dylan Deschamps secured silver medals at the inaugural big air event of the World Cup season held in Secret Garden, China. Urness, hailing from Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, clinched her first-ever World Cup medal at the age of 21 with a combined score of 165.75 over two runs.
In the women’s event, Great Britain’s Kirsty Muir claimed gold with a total score of 174.50, propelled by an exceptional first run of 91.75. Liu Mengting of China secured the bronze with a score of 165.25. On the men’s side, Deschamps from Quebec City, aged 22, earned the silver medal with a combined score of 178.50, while Troy Podmilsak from the U.S. took the top spot with 185.50 points. New Zealand’s Luca Harrington grabbed the bronze with a score of 176.00.
In addition to the freestyle skiing competition, a snowboard big air event also took place at Secret Garden, where Canadian teenager Eli Bouchard narrowly missed the podium in the men’s event, finishing fourth with a score of 153.75 after leading the qualification round. Chinese athletes Su Yiming and Ge Chunyu secured gold and silver, respectively, while Japan’s Ryoma Kimata claimed the bronze.
In the women’s snowboard final, Japanese athletes dominated the podium with Mari Fukada clinching the top spot with a score of 156.75, followed by Reira Iwabuchi in silver with 145.75 points and Miyabi Onitsuka in bronze with 141.50 points.