Olivia Asselin hasn’t finished surprising us at her first Olympic Games. The 17-year-old Quebecer qualified for her second final in as many events, Sunday evening, in slope style.
Updated at 12:20 a.m.
Asselin had two runs to show the extent of his expertise and rank among the top 12.
The Lévis native skied brilliantly on her first pass. Fluid and confident on her skis, she stood out from her opponents with the creativity of her jumps, obtaining 64.68 points. She was pointing at 9and rank at the end of the first round.
His second try didn’t go so well. Backwards on the first module, she made a small mistake, which seemed to distract her afterwards. She tried a backslide on the third module, but lost balance on landing and therefore only scored 6.75 points.
Thanks to his first run, Asselin was able to finish at 11and rank. The young athlete, who placed 8and in the big jump final a few days ago, will try to win his first Olympic medal on Monday, at 8:30 p.m.
Ontario’s Megan Oldham, the only other Canadian to take part in the event, had a more difficult day and could not qualify. On her first descent, she crashed as soon as she landed from the first module. She tried to recover on her second try, but missed a ski hold on her last jump, which cost her dearly in points. She eventually earned 63.10 points and finished the competition in 13and rank.
The young Chinese sensation Eileen Gu, gold medalist in the big jump six days ago, gave a little scare to her admirers. On her first descent, she made a mistake on the first module, before missing her landing on the third module. These two errors resulted in her only scoring 57.28 points. The 18-year-old skier, however, recovered well on her second run, collecting 79.38 points and placing herself in third position.
It was Estonian Kelly Sildaru (86.15 points) who finished first in qualifying, followed by Norwegian Johanne Killi (86.00 points).