Thenault and Dehlinger take wins on Day 1 in Le Relais

Jan 23, 2023·Freestyle

A standout day of finest freestyle skiing action went down in Le Relais (CAN) on Saturday, January 22, where the local hero Marion Thenault pleased an enthusiastic home crowd with a superb win in women’s competition, while the US skier Quinn Dehlinger came with a stunning performance and stormed to his career’s very first World Cup top spot over on the men’s side.

Following the holiday break the aerials World Cup tour finally got back to action in Le Relais, visiting the ski resort located just 15 minutes outside of Quebec City for the second straight year after the venue made its World Cup come-back in 2022.

And again this year the opening competition of the weekend in Lac-Beauport region didn’t disappoint as Saturday’s event was a truly top-tier showcase of world’s best aerial skiing on a perfectly prepared venue and with some thousands of happy fans on hand to celebrate a handful of remarkable showings.

In the women’s event, Marion Thenault made her dreams come true, scoring an extra special victory on home soil in front of her family and friends. Thenault impressed throughout the day with her execution, first qualifying in a runner-up position with an almost perfect Full-Full; then winning the first round of finals with a stunning double Full-Full, and finally putting down her most difficult trick - Full double Full. The 22-year-old Quebecois was awarded with a high score of 96.23 points as she moved atop the ranking and claimed her career’s second World Cup win.

Competing in her first event since March 2022, Ashley Caldwell (USA) also performed a Full double Full in the super-final, but she couldn’t quite match the performance from Thenault and finished the competition in the respective second place with 92.00 points.

Anastasiya Novosad (UKR) rounded out the podium in third place, for the second top-3 finish of her career. The 29-year-old Ukrainian received 86.71 points for her double Full-Full.

With the win on Saturday Thenault also moved atop the aerials World Cup ranking and she’s now leading the way with 180 points after two competitions. Danielle Scott (AUS), who failed to qualify into the super-final on Saturday sits in second with 132 points, with Anastasiya Novosad rounding out top-3 in third with 92 points.

Switching over to the men’s event Quinn Dehlinger delivered an outstanding performance, making his first big final appearance and scoring his first World Cup victory. Dehlinger started his day off strong with a second best score of qualifications of 118.14 points for his Full-double Full-Full. The US aerials skier then put another solid bFdFF jump in F1 for 117.70 points, which was the third highest score of this run.

Moving into the super-final Dehlinger stepped things up a notch with his double Full-Full-Full, for which he received a final score of 122.62 points and thus a well-deserved World Cup top spot.

Noe Roth (SUI) snagged his second top-3 finish of this World Cup campaign, after finishing in second place with 121.24 points for his Full double Full Full.

Dmytro Kotovskyi completed the men’s podium in third place with his career’s best performance after scoring 120.81 points for his Full-Full double and wrapping up a successful day for the Ukrainian Aerials Team with their second top-3 finish.

In the aerials World Cup ranking its now Roth who sits atop with 160 points, with the winner from Ruka and his teammate Pirmin Werner following behind in second place with 122 points and Dehlinger now jumping into third with 107 points.

The aerials World Cup action continues tomorrow with the second individual competition scheduled for this weekend in Le Relais. Sunday’s event is scheduled to also get underway at 9:00 EST with women’s qualifications. Men’s Q will follow up at 11:15 with finals set for 13:00.

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