Almost four years ago at the inaugural competition for mixed team aerials at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, three Canadians took home bronze medals.
Lewis Irving, Marion Thénault and Miha Fontaine – the first Canucks to pull an Olympic podium in the discipline since Veronica Brenner and Deidra Dionne won silver and bronze respectively at Salt Lake City 2002 – intend to take off with another next year.
They’ll attempt it at the Livigno Aerials & Moguls Park in Italy, where 3,000 onlookers will surround the course at the base of the mountain as dozens of athletes soar to reach the highest bar in Winter Sports.
But before Milano Cortina 2026 caps off this season, they are abroad and training at Genting Snow Park: the site of the aerials competition for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and their bronze medal win.
Stepping towards a Winter Games unburdened by low audience numbers and the COVID-19 pandemic, the three reflected on their experience in China, and what they each aim to achieve come February.
Freestyle skier Miha Fontaine is thrilled to have been part of the team that won a bronze medal in the Olympic debut of mixed team aerials.
Fontaine’s key to success
“If you’re not having fun, how can you even perform?”
That’s what Fontaine told CBC Sports shortly after winning bronze at his first Olympic appearance, downplaying the gravity of the competition despite first-time nerves.
“All the memories we got from four years ago are being brought back,” he said on returning to Genting.
There, on the snow in February 2022, Fontaine landed his first quadruple twisting double backflip.
Since then, he has done hundreds while competing on the World Cup circuit.
But for Fontaine, constant progression is paramount.
Over the past three summers, he has put in the work and added more rotation to his jumps, bringing it to five twists; a difficult move he intends to bring to the Winter Olympics.
“Sometimes, it’s a bit more rough, but I always try to go back to that state of mind: to have fun and not get overwhelmed by everything,” he said.
“That’s the key to success for me.”
Thénault focused on sustainability
Gliding out of a silver medal win earlier this month in Ruka, Finland, Thénault has two expectations: To make the podium at Milano Cortina 2026 and to make her trip carbon neutral.
“In 2022, I was a rookie on the World Cup circuit, and also in the sport, so the expectations were different,” she said on entering the Beijing Winter Olympics.
“Four years later, I’ve proved myself on the World Cup circuit.”
Off the slopes, it has been a four-year-long endeavour for the Sherbrooke, Que.-born athlete, coordinating with consulting firm WSP, who calculated emissions and other data to render Thénault’s journey as environmentally friendly as possible.
In addition, she now collaborates with the FIS directly to develop an event calendar that requires less travel for athletes, while speaking on behalf of her fellow competitors and navigating financial technicalities and shareholders.
“I’m very proud of what I’ve done and of the role I took in [making] sustainability as my focus point,” Thénault said.
“It’s an ongoing project.”
Irving leans on experience
“Right now, to be honest, most of my thinking is more on the actual World Cup circuit or the Crystal Globe than the Games itself,” Irving told CBC Sports.
The eldest member of the team, with two Olympic Games under his belt, Irving opts to remain as level-headed as possible moving through the season.
“I want to put these last 12 years of experience competing together and go with the mentality of trying to one-up what I did last time.”
For Irving, one-upping his previous Olympic performance includes scoring two medals at Milano Cortina 2026
Approaching his 50th World Cup start this coming weekend and having overcome multiple injuries since Beijing 2022 – he would break his femur soon after competing – he considered his future with the sport, and whether Milano Cortina 2026 would be his final Olympic Games.
“It might be my last season. We don’t know yet,” Iriving said.
“I want to go out there and enjoy every stop, every event, everywhere we go and the people I’ve been doing this with for over a decade.”
Returning to Livigno
But for Irving and his teammates, the biggest event is now only a few stops away.
However, it won’t be their first experience at the Livigno Aerials & Moguls Park.
At last season’s World Cup finals in March, which doubled as the Aerial & Moguls Olympic Test Event, Irving, Thénault and Fontaine competed individually. Their scores ranged from near-podium finishes to middle-of-the-pack standings.
Still, the team’s real victory was the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the mountain and its aerial site.
“To know how the in-run is, how much time you have before the jump, that’s a bonus going into the games,” Fontaine said.
“To have spent a few days jumping there was huge, and it takes away some of the surprise if you’ve never been,” Irving added.
That is because Livigno, unlike Beijing’s facilities with its 10-metre tall wind-blocking walls and meticulously maintained runs that ensure a near-identical jump every time, athletes are more subjected to the elements and the uncertainties that may arise.
“We noticed that, especially in the afternoons, the wind tends to pick up a little more,” Irving said.
For an aerial skier, winds mean a mid-air push that could cost athletes vital points on their landing in competition.
And given Livigno’s position within the Italian Alps, another threat is afternoon fog.
“You show up and it’s a perfect day, but then within the hour it gets super foggy,” Irving explained.
But with the knowledge of what the weather may bring, the trio are prepared for any outcome in Livigno, and for a Winter Olympics that promises to be a return to form.
“It’ll be cool to give the real Olympic experience to people who have only done the Beijing Games,” Irving said.
And as for Thénault, the additional promise of the most gender-balanced Games to date, with 47 per cent of athletes being women, is something else to look forward to.
“I’m excited for that – a very high level competition where women are throwing their biggest trick,” she said.
“And that’s something I love about aerials. When everybody just sends it.”
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