Gravenhurst’s Liam Brearley capped off his snowboarding season with a silver medal at the last World Cup event of the year in Silvaplana, Switzerland.
The 20-year-old was only three points away from capturing gold.
“It felt good to end the season on a high note,” says Brearley.
It’s Brearley’s third World Cup medal. He also won three medals at the Youth Olympics Games in 2020. While he didn’t end up competing, Brearley did travel to Beijing in Feb. 2022 for that year’s Winter Olympics.
On top of the silver, Brearley finished the World Cup season as the fourth-best slopestyle snowboarder. He finished just ahead of his good friend Cameron Spalding, who ended the season in fifth.
“I’ve been riding with cam for a long time,” says Brearley. “It feels good to be at the top level with him.”
The pair being in the top 10 is good news individually, but Brearley points out it’s great for Team Canada, too. The fact that they were both in the top 10 means Canada will be able to enter more competitors in next season’s World Cup.
Brearley is back in Gravenhurst now taking a break, however, he won’t be resting for long. He says he has spring events coming up, notably one in Australia in Aug. He says he and his teammates will be training at one of the resorts in the area. He says the trip has become an annual thing for the Canadian snowboarding squad, but he was forced to miss it last year because he was injured.
While ending on a strong note, Brearley points out how he dealt with injuries this year that caused him to miss some events. “I’m looking forward to the World Cup circuit again next year,” he says. Brearley adds he hopes to be healthy for training once it starts in the fall. “I’m looking forward to just having fun and hopefully learning some new tricks,” says Brearley.