Introducing Andi Naude, Canada's 'other' women's moguls star
Canada's top-ranked women's mogulist appearing in her 1st Winter Olympic Games
By Callum Ng, CBC Sports
Andi Naude is the lone western outsider on the freestyle moguls team, as the only athlete from beyond Quebec's borders.
While many Canadians may think of more-established stars like the Dufour-Lapointe sisters and Mikael Kingbury when they think about moguls, Naude's performance this season has made it difficult to forget her.
She's the top-ranked Canadian woman, sitting second on the World Cup moguls standings so far this season.
The 22-year-old calls the east side of Skaha Lake, south of Penticton, home, and found snow and the moguls at nearby Apex Mountain Resort.
She missed the team for Sochi, but pre-qualified for Pyeongchang along with Justine Dufour-Lapointe and the dominant Mikael Kingsbury.
Naude says she has been trying to amp up the degree of difficulty on her run.
She does a back full (a backflip with a 360 rotation) on her first air, which she says only a handful of women are doing. She does a back layout (backflip) on the bottom jump.
"I'm pretty excited to be able to do the harder tricks because I know for the past number of years women have been sticking to 360 and backflip and that's been the winning run at the Olympics," Naude said.
"I really hope to change that this year, would be really cool to see like the harder tricks being rewarded."
Unfamiliar with moguls skiing? Click on the video player below to get up to speed with Kidsplaining:
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