Fernie's Maggie Sutherland set her own personal record at Canadian Junior National Park & Pipe Championships in Calgary.
The 16-year-old freestyle ski athlete launched gravity defying and jaw-dropping stunts on the slopes at Calgary's Canada Olympic Park, Mar. 14 to 16. She became the highest-achieving athlete among males and females, after she won all three of her events in pipe, slopestyle and big air. She was designated the number one overall athlete in her category at the event.
"This definitely is the best I've ever done at any event," said Sutherland.
As she sped down the hill, she executed moves like the misty 540, switch 270 and the 360.
Sutherland said it was a difficult event with steep competition from some of the best athletes in Canada.
"A lot of the harder competition is from B.C and Alberta, so I know them personally. Their runs were really good, and I was really surprised with myself when I was able to put a run down that was good too," she said.
The warm weather and rough and slushy snow made for a challenging course.
"B.C athletes, we're used to real snow, so it's pretty challenging," said Sutherland. "It kind of gets grainy, that slushy kind of texture that gets kicked around really easy."
"I definitely caught my edge a lot of times at practice," she added.
Sutherland enroled in Fernie Freestyle Club three years ago, as a way to improve on her skills. She loved doing backflips on the ski hill and her family encouraged her to seek professional training.
Now she's ready to enter the Canadian FIS National Championships in Whistler Blackcomb for her last event of the season, Apr. 2 to 6, where she'll ski with the pros from Team Canada at the event, doing the largest jumps in the country.
"I don't really get the opportunity to hit those big jumps, so I'm really excited to go. I'm just going to do my best and see what that does," she said.
Getting air on larger jumps is one of the goals she's worked towards in order to make it to NorAm FreeStyle next year, which brings the best athletes from North America together.
"I just have to go for it and just do it," she said.
