Brooke D’Hondt has dropped into Calgary’s halfpipe a 10-minute drive from house extra occasions than she will be able to depend, however the snowboarder will compete in her first World Cup there beginning Thursday.
The youngest member of Canada’s 2022 Olympic workforce in Beijing grew to become severe about snowboarding across the identical time WinSport constructed a superpipe in 2014.
“I’d have been eight or 9. It’s just a little nostalgic for me to be again competing right here the place my halfpipe profession began,” D’Hondt advised The Canadian Press.
“I positively wouldn’t have competed on the Olympics if it wasn’t for having that pipe in my yard. I feel it form of set me on the trail to go to the Games at 16 years outdated.”
D’Hondt reached the ultimate to complete tenth in her Olympic debut a yr in the past.
Now 17, she’s coming off the most effective World Cup results of her profession final week in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., the place D’Hondt positioned fifth.
She landed a frontside 900 — two and a half spins — for the primary time in her profession.
“That was a purpose of mine to place that in my run this yr,” D’Hondt mentioned. “I feel the Olympics form of confirmed me what’s potential for my snowboard profession.”
Penultimate World Cup occasion
Calgary’s snowboard halfpipe and slopestyle “Snow Rodeo” at WinSport follows Edmonton’s massive air Dec. 10 at Commonwealth Stadium as this season’s Canadian stops on the World Cup snowboard circuit.
Halfpipe qualifying Thursday is adopted by Friday night time’s ultimate beneath the lights to conclude the World Cup season in that self-discipline.
Live protection of the occasion might be obtainable throughout CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem starting Friday at 9 p.m. ET.
Men’s slopestyle qualifying is Friday, adopted by the ladies’s Saturday and Sunday’s ultimate within the penultimate World Cup of the slopestyle season, which finish March 24-26 in Silvaplana, Switzerland.
Winter X Games slopestyle champion Mark McMorris of Regina is predicted to compete on Calgary’s hill the place he realized to snowboard.
D’Hondt’s teammate Elizabeth Hosking of Longueuil, Que., ranks fourth in girls’s halfpipe this season.
The 21-year-old positioned seventh in final month’s X Games in Aspen, Colo., and sixth final yr in Beijing.
Calgary’s World Cup additionally serves as a world warm-up for the world championship Feb. 19 to March 5 in Bakuriani, Georgia.
‘You can see the entire metropolis’
D’Hondt was solely 14 years outdated when she was invited to the 2020 X Games in Aspen as an alternate. She joined the sector due to withdrawals and positioned sixth in her debut.
The Canadian was invited once more this yr as an alternate, however D’Hondt declined her invitation to the January occasion.
“I simply felt my time could be higher spent coaching in my house pipe in preparation for Calgary’s World Cup in addition to Mammoth,” she defined.
WinSport’s halfpipe is the most important in Western Canada at 6.7 metres excessive, 22 metres broad, 160 metres lengthy and a vertical of 83 levels.
Calgary was an occasional coaching cease for retired American snowboard legend Shaun White due to the pipe’s dimensions and night time lighting.
“My favorite half about it’s that it is 10 minutes from my home and if you’re standing on the high of the pipe, you possibly can see the entire metropolis and it is also one of many solely locations on the planet you could experience at night time,” D’Hondt mentioned.
