Slopestyle’s Feminists Extremists

By Liam Downey

The Women’s Freeski Slopestyle Exhibition got off to an excruciating start, when Athena Brownson suffered a knee injury in practice. Athena is one of the coolest chicks out, and her injury definitely dampened the mood for the rest of the girls involved in the exhibition. When the course re-opened, they nonetheless put on an incredible show on the large-sized booter line, with Canada’s Kaya Turski crushing the jumps and rails as only she can. Kaya is new in the ski scene, and despite an injury last season, she has steadily been dropping knowledge on her female peers with tricks like switch 9s and 10s in contest. Although the huge jumps and snowy conditions didn’t warrant any 9s, Kaya was the only competitor who consistently landed and took off switch throughout practice and the exhibition. Her gap-270 on the flat-down box and front swap across the rail gap were flawless almost every run, which furthered her lead over Segal, Herman, and Faivre, and earned her the top score of 69.5.

Anna Segal finished in the well-deserved second spot, with a jaw-dropping display of flatspin 3s over the second jump, several of which she lofted nearly 70 feet. Keri Herman’s big airs and compact landings earned her third place in front of Swiss Miss Virginie Faivre, who once again proved herself as the styliest girl in skiing, what with those carved cork 3s that make the boys jealous. When the smoke cleared, no spectator could deny that the women of freeskiing are throwing down harder than ever.