Megan Oldham grabs slopestyle silver for 2nd freestyle skiing world medal
21-year-old Canadian picks up 87.75 points on 2nd run after earning 2021 bronze
Megan Oldham of Parry Sound, Ont., shone again at the freestyle skiing world championships, capturing a silver medal in women's slopestyle on Tuesday after finishing 2-10ths of a point behind Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland.
Third after scoring 80.88 on her first run in the big final, Oldham took advantage when Norway's Johanne Killi and Gremaud struggled, earning 87.75 from the judges for her second and final run in Bakuriani, Georgia.
"It's amazing to be here at the world championships, to have skied well and to be going home with the silver medal," Oldham, who collected bronze in her 2021 debut at worlds, told Freestyle Canada. "It was a difficult week because of the weather, so I'm really happy with my result.
The qualifying rounds were postponed twice due to poor weather.
Gremaud stood atop the medal podium on Tuesday, thanks to a stellar opening run that scored 87.95. Killi racked up 84.71 points for bronze.
On Jan. 28 in Aspen, the 21-year-old Oldham made action sports history when she landed the first-ever triple cork in a women's ski or snowboard event on the way to winning an X Games gold medal in the ski big air final.
Oldham was a silver medallist the previous year in Aspen and fourth in big air at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing last February.
WATCH | Canada's Oldham wins slopestyle silver at world championships:
Oldham earned a perfect score of 50 points with the leftside triple cork 1440 on her third of five runs. The Canadian added a rightside double cork 1260 later to end up with a winning overall score of 91 in the eight-athlete final.
She'll return to the slopes Friday for the big air qualifiers.
"I'm really looking forward to it," Oldham said. "I'm going to try to keep my momentum going and stay just as motivated."
Megan Oldham 🇨🇦 wins gold in Women’s Ski Big Air at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/XGames?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#XGames</a> Aspen 2023! <a href="https://t.co/KKYhydVAfQ">pic.twitter.com/KKYhydVAfQ</a>
—@XGamesElsewhere on Tuesday, Max Moffatt finished fourth in men's slopestyle, 1.53 points shy of bronze-medal position. The 24-year-old from Guelph, Ont., sat third after his 82.80 first run.
The Norwegian tandem of Birk Ruud (90.75) and Christian Nummedal (87.08), took gold and silver, while Switzerland's Andri Ragettli scored 84.33 for bronze.
Snowboard, freestyle and freeski competition runs through this week. Halfpipe begins Thursday, with Amy Fraser (Calgary), Dillan Glennie (Courtenay, B.C.) and Rachael Karker (Erin, Ont.) in the women's qualification rounds.
Simon d'Artois (Whistler, B.C.) and the Calgary trio of Andrew Longino, Brendan Mackay and Dylan Marineau are scheduled to take part on the men's side.
Events will be lived streamed Friday through Sunday on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
