“I wasn’t expecting this today,” Oldham said after stomping a massive left 360 opposite tail on her victory lap third run, “I was mainly focused on landing my jumps, and I was hoping for good weather, which we got. I’m happy to have ended up with both feet on the podium.”
“It was crazy to have my first-ever ‘victory lap!’ It felt great to be standing at the top, deciding what I wanted to do. I really enjoyed that moment,” added Oldham, who now holds third place in the overall rankings.
Second place behind Oldham went to Beijing 2022 slopestyle gold medallist Mathilde Gremaud, who started things off with a left double cork 1260 safety, fell on her second run, and then finished strong with a switch left double cork 1080 safety on her final run for a score of 172.00 and her 14th career World Cup podium.
Rounding out the podium in third and capping a big day for the Canadian team was Oldham’s teammate Olivia Asselin, as the 18-year-old grabbed her first career World Cup top-3 with style. Stomping a left double 1080 safety in run two and a switch left double 1080 mute in her third run for a combined score of 169.00, Asselin finally made good on the promise she’s been showing for the past few seasons.
HISTORY-MAKING MORNING AS RUUD EARNS 11TH WORLD CUP WIN
Over on the men’s side of things it was once again the Birk Ruud show, as the 22-year-old Norwegian won his third-straight World Cup competition so far in 2022/23, while in the process making a whole bunch of history and further strengthening his case as the greatest freeskier in the world.
First up for his history books were his tricks – a switch left triple cork 1960 mute on run one, and then – in what will go down as one of the gnarliest victory laps freeskiing has ever seen – a left double bio 1960 mute.
Neither trick had ever been done in World Cup competition, but on Friday at Copper, Ruud made each of them look almost routine, and his two-jump score of 192.00 points – just 8.00 points shy of perfection – reflected the otherworldly level that the current overall World Cup leader is skiing at right now.
