Vancouver, March 25, 2023 – Evan McEachran went out with a bang at the final slopestyle World Cup of the 2022-23 campaign on Saturday in Silvaplana, Switzerland. Thanks to his spectacular performance, the Canadian not only won the silver medal, but also earned his first podium finish of the season.
While McEachran did not get his desired results in previous finals, the story ended differently today, much to his delight, as he put down two clean runs to finish the day.
He earned 91.00 points on his first descent, putting him into third place provisionally. On his second run, the athlete from Oakville, ON, scored 93.00, which moved him up a slot and secured his spot on the second step of the podium.
“It’s absolutely incredible! I’ve run into all sorts of problems in my finals this year, and I’m really happy to be finishing like this! I’ve worked hard on my mental preparation over the past few months, and I feel like it has really helped. It sounds a bit cliché, but I focused on just enjoying skiing and putting less pressure on myself, and that’s made a positive difference,” said McEachran, following the competition.
The 26-year-old went all out for his last event of the season, adding two new jumps to his routine, the left double 16 and the switch right double 18. His boldness definitely paid off.
“It was a very demanding run that needed to be executed almost perfectly if I wanted to get onto the podium. I was feeling confident, and I knew I had what it took, but to do it twice in a row was just amazing!” said McEachran, before returning to his teammates to continue celebrating.
Jesper Tjäder of Sweden won the gold medal with a score of 94.25 on his first run, while the current world champion in the discipline, Birk Ruud of Norway, finished third with 92.50 points.
Also in the men’s final, Mark Hendrickson (Calgary, AB) finished seventh with a score of 90.00.
Etienne Geoffroy-Gagnon (Whitehorse, YT) and Alexander Henderson (Apex, BC) did not advance past Thursday’s qualification rounds. They finished 30th and 36th, respectively, in the overall rankings.
In the women’s competition, Megan Oldham was the only Canadian to advance to the final. Although she had finished first in the qualifiers, the runner-up world champion faltered slightly on her last descents, finishing fifth with 85.75 points.
Tess Ledeux of France won the event with a score of 93.25. She was accompanied on the podium by Sarah Hoefflin of Switzerland (90.25) and Johanne Killi of Norway (89.25). Ledeux also won the discipline’s Crystal Globe, having earned 380 points in five slopestyle contests this season.
The only other Canadian woman competing in Silvaplana was Rylee Hackler(Calgary, AB), who finished 18th in the qualifiers and did not advance to the next round.
Canada finished first in the Nations Cup for all disciplines in World Cup Freestyle, with a total of 7,324 points. Canada was followed by the USA (5,564) and Switzerland (4,135).
