Tweaked format leads to Duchaine’s first World Cup gold
Alexandre Duchaine has yet to celebrate his 20th birthday, but already has a World Cup gold under his belt thanks to a career-best performance at the FIS Men’s Aerials World Cup in Deer Valley U.S.
Due to continuous snowfall in the area, triple jumps were considered too dangerous to perform, and instead FIS officials made a tweak in the competition to focus solely on doubles.
This caused a major shakeup in the standings as the usual podium contenders struggled to adapt. Duchaine’s double full-double full (a triple back somersault with five twists) in the finals propelled him to gold. Duchaine hadn’t performed the move in over two years.
He finished with 102.57 points, ahead of American Connor Curran (102.22) and China’s Qi Guangpu (100.81).
“This year is the one where I wanted a podium and I didn’t expect it to be a first place. It’s even better and with my two fourths, I was really confident for this year. I’m super happy with what I did tonight!” said Duchaine following his victory this Friday.
Duchaine now sits in fourth place in the overall Cup standings, and is just 22 points behind third place.
Elsewhere in the competition, Émile Nadeau took ninth place, while Victor Primeau and Lewis Irving finished in 15th and 17th position respectively.
