Halfpipe athletes went head over heels for spring sessions at WinSport

By Max Campbell

Spring was in the air, and so were a handful of Olympic hopefuls who still had a few tricks up their sleeves. 

In other words, they too were flipping out, albeit in a much different way, over the final remnants of snow. 

Eight days of annual training on the WinSport halfpipe concluded last weekend for Freestyle Canada and Canada Snowboard halfpipe athletes, whose exclusive access to the ski hill once again garnered rave reviews. 

“It’s been super awesome to be able to come out here and get an extra week in after the hill closes,” begins Andrew Longino, who has skied on the international stage since 2019. “Usually, we go to the gym at CSI (Canadian Sport Institute Alberta, also located at WinSport) and do a little warm-up and then come out here and ski for three or four hours and then go back and do a workout. We do that on repeat for the whole spring camp.” 

A similar sentiment of gratitude is shared by Quincy Barr, an emerging 18-year-old and the only skier added to the Canadian high-performance program this past season. 

“It’s been unreal to have a closed halfpipe for us to train in,” Barr offers. “To all the people who put in the effort to make it happen, we’re just so appreciative.” 

The post-winter weather resulted in ideal conditions to spring into action.  

“We’re able to learn a lot of tricks out here while it’s soft and a bit warmer compared to training in the middle of the wintertime,” Longino notes. “It’s a bit more dangerous (at that time of the year) and the pipe is a little bit harder and icier. It’s a sunny place here and having a pipe that’s soft like this allows you to mitigate a little bit of the risk.” 

The trio of Longino, Barr, and Noah Bowman is especially proud to have trained at WinSport last week as they each hail from Calgary and even attended the National Sport School, also at Canada Olympic Park. 

“It’s cool to see that other people on the team who have come up have also gone through the process,” says Bowman, a 2010 NSS graduate who’s in the process of qualifying for his fourth Olympics and placed as high as fourth in 2022. “It shows that it’s a working formula. I’m always appreciative of the staff and the school.” 

All three halfpipe high-flyers recently travelled overseas with six other teammates to compete in the Freestyle Skiing World Championships in Engadin, Switzerland. 

“It was an awesome experience, and it was super fun to be in Europe and competing against the best in the world,” recaps Longino, hoping to make his Olympic debut when the Games are co-hosted by Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, in February. “It was kind of like a little preview of the Olympics next year which is just down the valley from where we were.” 

With this past season officially in the rear-view mirror, Longino cherishes this unique training opportunity alongside his fellow countrymen. It’s one that simply isn’t available for most other nations.  

“We do camps all over the world, but this camp specifically is cool because it’s only Canadians here,” explains Longino, still peering through his ski goggles as if the adrenaline rush remains despite being done for the day. "We’re able to do this because WinSport allows us to train when there’s no one else on the hill. That’s a pretty special thing for Canada.”