Calgary, AB. (Feb 2, 2024) — Britt Richardson (Canmore, AB) won Canada’s first gold medal at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Haute-Savoie (FRA) in today’s women’s giant slalom (GS). This is Canada’s first win in an individual event at Junior Worlds since Valérie Grenier won the downhill in
2016 and Richardson is the first Canadian women to be crowned junior world champion in GS since Mélanie Turgeon in 1994.
Racing in her third, and final Junior World Championships, Richardson was the leader after the first
run and then delivered the second fastest second run to win the race by a convincing .81 of a second. Today was Richardson’s six career start at Junior Worlds, and her third top 15 result.
“I’m really excited to be a World Junior Champion,” said smiling Richardson. “I’ve been wanting this
for a couple of years now and to finally claim it today is super special. A big thank you to everyone who has supported me in my career and for their help in getting me to the gold medal here today.”
“It was really fun racing out there today,” added Richardson. “There were lots of super competitive
girls in the race and it was fun pushing the limits and going for gold.”
Other Canadians competing in the women’s GS today were Kendra Giesbrecht (St. Albert, AB) who finished 38th, Amélie Bourgeois (St-Bruno, QC) who started 69th and jumped up to 27th in the first run but didn’t finish her second run. While Andreea Nicolici (Ottawa, ON) and Arianne Forget (Prévost, QC) did not finish their first run, and Estelle Martin (Outremont, QC) did not start today.
In today’s men’s slalom (SL) at the Junior World Championships Pierick Charest (Blainville, QC)
stood 18th after the first run and finished in 19th. Jesse Kertesz-Knight (Jasper, AB) was 40th
after the first run and did not finish his second run. Thomas McKinlay (Ottawa, ON) didn’t finish his first run.
The Junior World Ski Championships wrap up on Saturday with the women racing SL and the men GS. Fans can tune in to all the action FIS TV (link).
Next races: (link to FIS Calendar)
- Ski cross race again in Alleghe (ITA) Feb 3
- Junior World Ski Championships wrap up in Haute-Savoie (FRA) on Feb 3
- Men alpine race SL in Chamonix (FRA) on Feb 4
- Women alpine will be in Soldeau (AND) for races Feb 10 and 11
- Para-alpine head to Sapporo (JPN) Feb 10-15
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