Women’s Freeski Slope Exhibition: Turski Shoulders On

By Justin Broglio

Girls are tougher than boys–Turski takes Slopestyle with sketchy shoulder

Have you ever dislocated a shoulder? It hurts!

It hurts particularly so if you’ve gotta keep skiing to win the Winter Dew Tour Women’s Slopestyle Exhibition, as Kaya Turski did this afternoon. Despite dislocating her shoulder during practice, Kaya’s first-run score of a 92.17 placed her far ahead of the five women competing today. During her second run, she nudged her score to 93.50.

Rounding out the top-three is local-favorite Michelle Parker (88.67) and Meg Olenick (sister to the famed Peter Olenick) with an 83.67.

During practice runs this afternoon Turski, a 20-year-old female rollerblader turned freeskiing superstar, was attempting to land switch out of a 720 spin when she popped a ski and slammed shoulder-first into the snow.Pop! As she stood up her right shoulder, dislocated from the fall, popped back into place–saving Turski the agonizing ordeal of manually re-inserting it. After her first run she said she chose to compete without poles because of the injury. “It hurts, but without my poles I’m OK,” she said. “And hey, sometimes I like riding without poles.”

Turski’s run, truly exceptional considering her condition, included a switch lip on to the down rail followed by a switch 270 on and off the flat box into a very smooth mute 360 on the first jump. She then stepped into the realm of the men’s riding seen earlier today with a disaster (no it’s a good thing; a disaster is a trick in which a skier takes off looking as though they are going to crash into the jib feature below, but then turns just slightly and slides) on the down-flat-down box. She finished out with an awesome switch 540 into switch 720–Well worthy of the awarded 93.50.

Beyond witnessing Terski’s perseverance, the most exciting moments from the Women’s Exhibition came courtesy of the fourth- and fifth-place finishers. Twenty-two year old Claudia Bouvier from Vail, Colorado, threw down the only 900 of the day on the last hit during her second run. 18-year-old Canadian Gillian Mciver tossed in a Rodeo 720, a trick literally unheard of–until now–in women’s Freeski competition.

“I’m so stoked for everyone,”Michelle Parker said after the awards ceremony, adding she was especially pleased by the Rode 7 and 9. “What an awesome day.”