Olympic qualification season kicks off for Henshaw in Font Romeu

Courtesy: www.owia.org

SKI SLOPESTYLE: Sochi Olympian and 2017 Slopestyle Skiing World Cup bronze medallist Russ Henshaw hits the hill this week in Font Romeu, France for the season’s first World Cup and Olympic qualifier.

Many of the world’s best skiers will compete from December 19 to 23 at the French ski resort with the hopes of obtaining the all important quota places for PyeongChang 2018.

Slopestyle requires a series of acrobatic and aerial tricks on a specially constructed track not dissimilar to skateboard rails. The sport ‘with no rules’ is one of the most popular disciplines and debuted in Sochi in 2014, where Henshaw placed eighth.

In early 2017, the Jindabyne local captured a World Cup bronze medal at Seiser Alm in Italy after recovering from a brutal 2015/16 when he sustained a shoulder injury.

In the run-up to PyeongChang Henshaw is reporting that he is in good shape and looking forward to the start of his competitive season.

“I'm feeling really good and had an amazing time preparing in Laax (Switzerland). I got quite a few days on the jumps and also had the bonus of skiing a lot of powder so it all worked out great,” Henshaw said this week as he arrived in Font Romeu.

With each course specially constructed, he is eager to test out this year’s track.

“I haven't seen anything to do with the course yet. Hopefully it is all good and the weather cooperates this year,” he said.

Official training gets underway on Tuesday and Men’s qualification begins at 7.25pm (AEDT) on Thursday, 21 December with finals on Saturday, 23 December from 10.47pm (AEDT).

You can follow the live scoring HERE, and tune into Eurosport from 10.30pm (AEDT) on Saturday night to watch the finals live.

Belinda Noonan
OWIA