Calgary's Rosalind Groenewoud said she invoked the spirit of last year's winner, Sarah Burke, to get her through the final of the European X Games women's ski halfpipe at Tignes, France Friday.
When he was done, she clasped a gold medal victory – and the memory of her friend.
"I've never been in that position before and done well," said Groenewoud. "Sarah was often in that position," she said, referring the Burke's ability to grab a victory with a last bold run.
"I was thinking about that and how Sarah was in that position last year at the Euro X Games and won and that inspired me to pull out the win here. I definitely thought about her a lot today."
Burke died in a halfpipe training accident in Park City, Utah earlier this season. The popular Burke won this event last year under similar circumstances to those faced by Groenewoud.
Coming into her final run in the best-of-three run competition, Groenewoud was sitting in second position behind Devin Logan of the United States. She pulled out all the stops, including a huge straight air manoeuvre and a 900, to take the lead from the American.
Groenewoud scored 89.33 on that final run. Logan was more than a point behind, at 85.00. Local girl, Anais Caradeaux of France earned the bronze at 85.00.
It was Groenewoud's second-straight X Games title. She took the top spot at the U.S. version of the X Games in Aspen earlier this year.
Fellow Calgary natives Megan Gunning and Keltie Hansen finished in fifth and tenth spots, with scores of 77.00 and 43.33, respectively.
In men's pipe action, Vernon, B.C.'s Justin Dorey finished just off the podium in fourth position with a score of 90.00.
American youngster Torin Yater-Wallace, 16, won the event with 95.00 points in his final run. Thomas Krief of France was second at 91.66 and American David Wise took the bronze at 90.33.
Dorey, who had a dramatic crash at the Aspen X Games where he hit the deck and dislocated his shoulder, said he was definitely nervous to compete here in his first contest since that accident.
"I was scared, just worried about crashing and hurting my shoulder again, but I landed three fairly decent runs and didn't hurt my shoulder, so that's good. It's definitely a good confidence booster," said Dorey.
Other Canadians to qualify for Friday's event included Noah Bowman of Calgary who finished fifth at 85.00 and Penticton, B.C.'s Matt Margetts, who just couldn't lay down a run today, landed in eight spot at 38.00.
Edmonton's Mike Riddle did not qualify for the eight-man finals. He finished in 11th at the qualification event.
FIS World Cup aerials finals run tomorrow in Voss, Norway with Canadian Olivier Rochon bidding to win the crystal globe. FIS World Cup mogul finals will be held Sunday in Mageve, France, where Mikael Kingsbury will be awarded the crystal globe for moguls and the over all men's freestyle globe.