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A freestyle skier performs an iron cross. (Photo 4468909 © Steeve Roche | Dreamstime.com)
Freestyle

3rd annual Flatland Freestyle Ski Festival to bring serious air this weekend

Mar 14, 2024 | 4:00 PM

Alley-Oop, the Flatland Freestyle Ski Club is inviting skiers ages six to 17 to join them on Table Mountain Regional Park for the 3rd Annual Flatland Freestyle Ski Festival this weekend from March 16 to 17.

“We have been just working to grow the sport in the Battlefords,” said Andrea Ornawka, head coach.

“Our biggest goal right now is to be able to get a little bit more growth out of club. We’ve had a lot of people coming from Saskatoon, but we’d like to see more engagement here.”

She explained that roughly 46 competitors from all over the prairie provinces will take part in the weekend event to compete in moguls and slope style.

Ornawka started her own journey into freestyle when she was eight-years-old after training as a racer.

“I was looking for something a little bit different, so I joined the freestyle club and I fell in love with it,” she said.

After competing for another eight years, she and a group of four other skiers ended up competing at the Winter Games.

“I moved to the mountains to pursue a little bit more time skiing and to get my kinesiology degree,” said Ornawka, noting she was also able to do some coaching.

Fast forward three years and she returned to a local club.

The event will bring out the fun, competitive spirit as skiers spend their Friday training before the moguls event on Saturday.

“There are three different areas that the judges look at when they are judging a mogul event,” she said.

“The biggest thing they’re focusing on is turns – that’s worth 60 per cent of your score. So, we want to see the athletes doing really nice turns through the moguls.”

20 per cent goes towards getting air off the jump from a trick.

“That can range anywhere at these competitions from doing a nice big star jump to doing a back flip or a front flip,” she said.

The other 20 per cent goes towards speed.

“It’s really awesome to see these children developing into just strong athletic little people,” said Ornawka.

“I think for a lot of coaches, number one priority is to develop good people and then if you get a good athlete out of it at the end, that’s cool too.”

Sunday will be dedicated to the slope style events and skiers will focus on all the tricks they have learned over their years of skiing.

“The kids are super stoked. They always have such a blast,” she said, noting for some, it’ll be their first event.

Meanwhile, registration is open, and fees cost $80. To sign up, email flatlandfreestyle.ski@gmail.com.

“At the end of the day, we want to make sure we’re helping these kids become the best versions of themselves,” she said.

“So, it’s awesome to see at the end of the year the progress that these kids have made and the challenges that they worked through and how they are able to persevere and showcase to all of their friends and family all of the successes that they’ve had.”

julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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