An untimely knee injury forced Brackendale resident Marie-Andree Racine to pull out of the slopestyle competition at the FIS World Championships last week in La Molina, Spain.
It was a particularly disappointing withdrawal from competition for Racine, as it was the first time that slopestyle was on display in World Championships history. The event involves an athlete performing tricks in the air as well as on rails and boxes. Unlike racing, there is no clock and competitors are awarded points for the style and difficulty of their run by a group of judges. It's under consideration for inclusion into the 2014 Winter Olympics, but not being able to compete in Spain was a bitter pill for Racine to swallow.
Racine described the injury on her blog. "First run, everyone checks out the course, checks the speed," she said. "Second run, I hit the first couple features, first jump, then bang, knuckle and have a really big pain in my front knee. Got sledded down the hill, took a mini ambulance and got it checked out and taped. That was not what I was expecting for my first day riding here at all."
Her injury didn't seem to improve and she eventually had to bow out of the competition.
Squamish's Justin Lamoureux, who competed in the men's halfpipe, failed to make the finals, placing 18th overall during the semifinals on Thursday (Jan. 20). Lamoureux made it through the elimination round earlier in the week but then scored 17.8 points in the semifinals, which wasn't enough to move on.
Earlier in the week, Squamish's Ma毛lle Ricker and Tom Velisek also competed during the snowboard cross. Ricker placed fourth in the event, advancing all the way to the final only to suffer a fall and place fourth. She suffered minor injuries in the fall and is not expected to miss any competition time. Velisek suffered a similar fate, only earlier. He fell in an icy corner during heavy traffic and ended up finishing in 31st place.
Next up for Velisek will be the X-Games, which runs from Thursday (Jan. 27) to Saturday (Jan. 30) in Aspen, Colo.
