Her grandparents made the drive from Edmonton, and Megan Oldham rewarded them with a podium finish in Calgary.
The 18-year-old, who won the women’s freeski slopestyle Crystal Globe last season, put on a show in her first run of the slopestyle finals at the Snow Rodeo World Cup in Calgary on Saturday afternoon.
It was enough to earn her the first podium finish of her season, as her 80.70 score had her behind only winner Eileen Gu, of China, and Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud.
“I felt really good after my first run, for sure,” Oldham said. “I knew I was struggling a bit with speed originally, so to be able to go that big, I was super, super happy.”
Oldham has finished on four world cup podiums so far in her young career and the Parry Sound, Ont. native is one of the skiers-to-watch with the 2022 Olympics in Beijing only two years away.
In Calgary this weekend, the Canadian freestyle ski team has given fans lots of reasons to start feeling optimistic about what lies ahead. On Friday, Rachael Karker and Brendan MacKay both finished in second place in the women’s and men’s halfpipe competitions at Winsport, while 22-year-old Evan McEachran finished just off the podium in fourth in the men’s slopestyle on Saturday.
In Saturday evening’s snowboard halfpipe, Chinese rider Xuetong Cai won gold with a run of 87.25, while Japan’s Ruka Hirano earned gold with a huge run that earned him a 94.75.
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