Marion Thénault soars to first World Cup gold, Lewis Irving captures bronze
Marion Thénault won her first-career World Cup gold on Saturday. The 20-year-old topped the podium at the FIS Freestyle World Cup in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Thénault put up a score of 89.88 in women’s aerials points to win the competition. She finished ahead of Russia’s Liubov Nikitina (86.36) and host-country’s, Zhanbota Aldabergenova of Kazakhstan (84.99), who claimed silver and bronze.
Wow. What a performance from the rookie Marion Thenault today in Almaty, as the 20-year-old snagged her very first World Cup win as well as the 2020/21 Rookie of the Year award in the process. We can’t wait to see more of that next season Marion 👊 #aerials pic.twitter.com/QFo58WRlb6
— FISfreestyle (@FISfreestyle) March 13, 2021
Thénault has had a breakout season on the slopes. Following today’s competition, she was named the FIS Rookie of the Year after finishing third overall in the 2020-2021 season standings.
The Sherbrooke, Quebec native reached the World Cup podium for the first time this season with a bronze in Moscow.
READ: Marion Thénault claims first World Cup podium in Moscow
On the men’s side, Lewis Irving earned his third bronze medal of the season in his respective aerials competition. He scored 113.28 points to reach the third step of the podium.
READ: Lewis Irving soars to bronze in Belarus
The Quebec City native stood alongside Swiss freestyle skiers Pirmin Werner in first (121.72) and Nicolas Gygax (119.46) in second.
