Gangwon 2024: Team Canada at the end of Day 6
GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA (January 25, 2024) – Team Canada increased its medal count by one on Day 6 of the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games – adding a silver medal in snowboard slopestyle by Eli Bouchard (Lac Beauport, Que). Today, seven Team Canada athletes were in action in three sports.
ALPINE SKIING
All three of Team Canada’s alpine skiers were in action today in the women’s and men’s slalom. The Canadian women had excellent runs, both cracking the top-15 in a field of 65 skiers. Aida Draghia (Chateauguay, Que.) finished 10th and Elsa Feliciello (Piedmont, Que.) finished 14th. Thomas Carnahan (Ottawa, Ont.) had a strong first run, placing 16th. In his second run, he was skiing well and aggressively, but crashed out and was unable to finish. He walked away and will compete tomorrow when the alpine events wrap up with the mixed team parallel.
FREESTYLE SKIING
Charlie Beatty (Horseshoe Valley, Ont.) and Matthew Lepine (Ottawa, Ont.) got their first taste of Youth Olympic Games competition today in the men’s ski slopestyle, both athletes qualifying for the final. Lepine qualified in the tenth and final position, while Beatty was the top qualifier – scoring 92.25 in his second run after crashing in his first. In the final, the Canadians weren’t able to put together the runs they had been training for, finishing eighth and tenth. Beatty’s qualification score of 92.25 held as the highest of the day, with the eventual gold medallist from Team USA scoring 90.25 to take the Youth Olympic title. Both Beatty and Lepine will also compete in the big air event later this week.
“Qualifying was really good for me, just to get that run down. In my second run I had a lot of pressure because I didn’t land my first run, so to get a 92 was really, really exciting for me and gave me confidence going into the finals. I had three cracks at a run, I tried to ‘up’ it, wasn’t able to put one to my feet, but that’s just something I’ve got to learn – to be more consistent and to just keep practicing.”
– Charlie Beatty
Nearly a week ago, Beatty had the honour of carrying the Canadian flag into the Opening Ceremony with curling athlete Chloe Fediuk. Lepine also shared that the Opening Ceremony experience has so far been one of the highlights of his Youth Olympic Games journey.
“The Opening Ceremony and walking out wearing all the Canada gear, and just being here and having all the Canadian fans supporting – it’s been a really cool experience.”
– Matthew Lepine
“It was pretty surreal to be carrying the flag into the Opening Ceremony. It was something I’ve kind of dreamed of since I was a little kid. When it’s time to do that in real life, you don’t really remember much – it’s just all happiness and joy. It was definitely a pretty cool experience to have the honour to do that.”
– Charlie Beatty
SNOWBOARD
Neko Reimer (Rossland, B.C.) who competed at the 2023 FIS Junior World Championships in New Zealand, where he was born before moving to British Columbia at a young age, comfortably qualified for the final in fifth place. He placed 10th in the final, and will also compete in the snowboard big air event in a few days.
“Today felt good! Didn’t have the greatest runs in training the past couple days, but really happy to make it to finals today – had a great time, really glad to be here! This has been the coolest trip of my whole life – it’s been such a great time. I’m doing big air in the next couple days, so I’m going to get some physio, a lot of rest and some ramen.”
– Neko Reimer
Eli Bouchard (Lac Beauport, Que.), who just turned 16 years old in December, qualified for the final in first place with a score of 83.25. The gold medallist in both slopestyle and big air from the 2023 Canada Winter Games, Bouchard improved on his qualification score and won the Youth Olympic Games silver medal with a top score of 90.00. Bouchard became a YouTube sensation at eight years old when he became the youngest known snowboarder to land a double black flip. He will also compete in the snowboard big air event in the coming days.
“The runs that I landed, I learned that trick, the ‘cab 16’ one week ago, so I’m really stoked about that. It was super stressful but I had a great time, it was really fun and I’m stoked to put my runs down. And I’m on the podium so I’m really stoked about that too.”
– Eli Bouchard
For full Team Canada results from Day 6, click here.
SCHEDULE FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS – JANUARY 26 (Day 7) / JANUARY 27 (Day 8)
*The “Potential / Comp. possible” column represents a potential phase of competition should a competitor advance. Rows in red are medal events.
TEAM CANADA MEDAL COUNT:
Gold – 0 | Silver – 2 | Bronze – 0
HOW TO WATCH:
As the official Gangwon 2024 broadcaster in Canada, CBC/Radio-Canada will provide coverage of the Games on cbcsports.ca, radio-canada.ca/sports and the CBC Sports app.
The Olympic Channel also has coverage of Gangwon 2024, live-streamed on their free app.
RESOURCES:
PHOTOS: Submit a request to Tara (tmacbournie@olympic.ca) for editorial photos from images.olympic.ca. Additional photos for editorial use only are available to media at oisphotos.com
VISIT: Olympic.ca/press-resources/ for athlete bios and other Gangwon 2024 information.
FOLLOW: @teamcanadapr on Twitter (X)
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Tara MacBournie, Team Canada’s Gangwon 2024 Communications Lead
Canadian Olympic Committee
WhatsApp: 647-522-8328
E: tmacbournie@olympic.ca