Dara Howell is atop the podium once again. The Huntsville native competed in the FIS Big Air Freeski World Cup in Quebec over the weekend in the last competition of the World Cup season, and brought home the gold. She came in first with a score of 175, beating out Italy’s Silvia Bertagna who scored 174, and fellow Canadian Megan Cressey who finished with a score of 152.80.
In a statement to Freestyle Canada, Howell said it means everything to end the season with a win. It was her first Big Air event, and she says she hopes there are more of them in her future, and that they are really good for the sport. She also noted it was “awesome” that the event was held in Canada. Big Air wasn’t part of the 2018 Olympics, but Freestyle Canada says it’s popular in the community and could make it into the 2020 games in Beijing. The competition has skiers or snowboarders down a large jump to perform tricks. In Quebec, the ramp was 40-metres-high and 91-metres-long.
Howell competed at the Pyeongchang Olympics last month; her first qualifying run was over near the top of the hill when she fell on a rail, and her second run ended with her dropping a ski while landing a jump, and so she didn’t make it into the top 12. However, Huntsville still rallied behind the Olympic athlete as hundreds of people packed into Hidden Valley to watch her ski. The 2018 games was Howell’s second trip to the international tournament. She first competed in Sochi in 2014 and brought home the gold in slopestyle skiing, the first Olympian to make it to the top of the podium in the discipline, as it was the first time the sport was part of the Olympic Games.
https://www.facebook.com/DaraHowellSkiing/videos/1725643457521156/
Previous stories:
Huntsville comes together in show of support for Dara Howell
Howell’s family excitement is “off the scale” for Friday’s event