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ZHANGJIAKOU, China — The Canadians failed to secure a spot in the finals of the aerials event at the Beijing Olympics. And yet, you would have thought they had just won a medal when they met the media in the mixed zone.
Miha Fontaine and Émile Nadeau were particularly happy with their evening. In their first Games, the two men wowed the gallery by performing back triple somersaults with four twists, maneuvers they attempted for the first time on snow.
“Seriously, I couldn’t ask for better,” admitted Fontaine with a smile. To finish 15th or to finish in the bottom of the classification, it did not bother me. My full double full full, it was my fifth in life on snow and it’s the best I’ve done. My double full-full-full, I only did three on the water ramps and it was the first time on snow. To succeed like that, I couldn’t ask for better.
“It just made my day. My father (Nicolas Fontaine, silver medalist at the Albertville Games in 1992) gave me advice to make good jumps, because that’s what will stay on TV. He finds it disappointing when they put bad jumps on tv! I think I just made my day with it. »
“It’s really incredible, I’m very happy with my performance, especially at the Olympics,” said Nadeau. It was really the fun to do my first triple four twists in competition and to have them landed, it was really great. my second jump, I knew it took me a really big jump to pass. (…) I went all in trying a new jump that I had never done on snow, a double full-full-full. I had a little difficulty in the air, but I was able to land it and I’m really happy to have done that at the highest international level. »
Lewis Irving was the most disappointed of the three, he who had high expectations this season. But a knee injury suffered in training ahead of the first World Cup of the season deprived him of the entire schedule. It was therefore his first individual competition since last March. He has nothing to be ashamed of his performance, far from it.
“We’ll take what we can,” said the man who won bronze in the mixed team event with Fontaine and Marion Thénault. We are still progressing. It’s a learning experience for future competitions. »
He was especially disappointed since he was more successful in his jumps in training.
“I jumped well this week, it was going well and I was confident. It was 100% realistic (to aim for the finals). Unfortunately, a small mistake coming out of the springboard cost me my landing. It didn’t happen at the right time, but that’s part of the sport. »
In the end, Fontaine was the best of the three, only missing his qualification by one rank with a 13th place by virtue of 115.05 points, 44 hundredths behind the last qualified, the Belarusian Stanislau Hladchenka.
Nadeau (112.83) finished 17th. Irving (103.98) finished his second Olympics in 23rd place. He had concluded the PyeongChang Games in 24th place.
“We are moving towards the best, so I would like another chance in four years,” Irving philosophized.
Of note, the three Canadians had their best score in the first session and couldn’t improve on their second jump.
The level was very high during these qualifications. The Chinese Guangpu Qi dominated the first session with 127.88 points, a score which has not been reached again in the evening. He was followed by his compatriot Zongyang Jia, silver medalist at the last Games.
Swiss Noe Roth, American Eric Loughran, Ukrainian and reigning Olympic champion Oleksandr Abramenko and American Christopher Lillis, silver medalist at the last Worlds, also qualified in the first round.
Big surprise in these qualifications: the Russian Maxim Burov, who won the four stages of the World Cup presented this season, missed his two jumps and ended the evening in 16th place
