West Vancouver’s Skye Clarke certainly seems to be aptly named, as the 13-year-old freestyle skier has taken flight to earn several impressive recent victories on the slopes.
Clarke won gold in the U14 girls slopestyle competition at the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association junior nationals held last month at Beaver Valley Ski Club in Kimberly, Ont. Clarke’s score of 70.6 was 18 points ahead of the second-place finisher.
The event was contested in difficult conditions with high winds, rain and even some lightning.
"The snow was really, really slow, so it was hard for me, since I'm really light, to get speed for the jumps, which was a challenge," Clarke said. "I went straight into all the jumps and I just tucked really hard."
Clarke credited the first jump of her routine with getting the judges on her side.
"I did a certain trick called a flat three, which is an off-axis back flip, and I did it really clean and did a Japan grab, which really stuck out to the judges, I think, because nobody else did it," she said.
Clarke’s slopestyle score was the best of the day, including athletes competing in higher age groups up to U18. Chris Muir, Clarke’s coach with the Whistler Blackcomb Freestyle Ski Club, said there was no doubt Clarke would be the winner with the run she laid down.
"Her strength, especially compared to other females, is she's really big on rails," he said. "She's able to ride the same rails that some of the boys are doing, so that's what really put her over the top. … She was doing some really difficult off-axis tricks – a flat three, as well as being able to spin with a really nicely executed grab. That's why she won that day.”
Clarke was competing at the national level for the first time but she stayed calm throughout the competition, said Muir.
"She overcame any jitters that she would have had and she did phenomenal," he said. "She's a pretty calm person. If she did (have jitters) she keeps it on the inside. She's definitely a competitor and likes to be out there."
Clarke topped off her season by winning gold in the U14 slopestyle and big air competitions as well as bronze in moguls at the freestyle provincial championships held last weekend at Vancouver Island’s Mount Washington resort.
With files from Pique Newsmagazine
