Capping off a mistake-free run with a clean landing on the final drop, Olivia McNeill’s arms shot straight up in the air in celebration as she cruised down to the bottom of the course.
At the time, she didn’t know her run would be enough to capture the top spot on the podium in the first leg of the Freeride World Tour (FWT) in Baqueira Beret, Spain, but she knew it gave her a strong chance of reaching the top-four goal she set for herself before the competition.
“I was dropping fairly close to the end, so I was pretty excited because I thought I had a good chance at being on the podium. I wanted to have a good, solid result to keep going with so I was just excited to land and at that moment hopeful that I would achieve a top-four result,” she said.
“I wouldn’t say I was completely in shock, but I was very excited. Lots of excitement for a lot of different reasons. I have a big, long trend of falling every time I go to Europe, so I was extra excited for that reason. It was just nice to put down a run that was nice and flowy and smooth.”
That first-place finish for McNeill, who got her start in freeriding with Whistler’s Mountain Adventure Program, represented a moment of redemption and relief for the 20-year-old Vancouverite.
In 2021, as a last-minute addition to the FWT after an injury to another rider, McNeill went through all the hassles of travelling overseas amid a pandemic only to break her ankle in the first leg of the tour, ending her inaugural FWT experience as abruptly as it started.
This year, once again making the tour as a wild card and wanting to prove that she belonged in a competition next to the same skiers she’s been watching for years, McNeill’s recent injury history was front of mind for the skier. It added even more pressure to put down a clean run.
“I’ve been dealing with a lot of injury stuff for the past few years, so the pressure that I feel most is to do a run that is actually up to my physical ability because I didn’t really feel like I necessarily earned [my spot],” said McNeill. “I was super excited to be there, but I was feeling a little out of place. And I think just landing a run like I did really helped solidify that, ‘I am here, and I do deserve to be here’ mindset. It’s nice to feel that confidence that I can do it and I can stand up against all these people who I have been watching for so long.”
Following Baqueira, the tour made its way to Ordino Arcalís, Andorra in early February, where McNeill found herself near the bottom of the pack in eighth place. But despite the disappointing finish in the second leg, the Whistler Freeride Club alum still sits second overall in points with 12,095 heading into the third stop in Kicking Horse this week.
The chance to not only punch her ticket to the final legs of the tour in Fieberbrunn, Austria and Verbier, Switzerland in March, but also qualify for next year’s FWT, has McNeill excited about what’s to come. The fact that her birthday falls inside the competition window makes the upcoming event all the more special.
“I’m really excited about Kicking Horse … it’s been a few years since I’ve been there now, so I’m very excited to go back,” she said. “I love the mountains in B.C. I love the landscape and they just kind of make me feel safe.”
The FWT finals consist of the top six riders based on their two best scores from the first three legs of the tour. With a first-place finish already under her belt, McNeill’s chances of qualifying are strong—but not guaranteed.
With that in mind, McNeill is on the fence about how to approach the competition in Kicking Horse.
“I kind of want to go full throttle there, too, but that will definitely be conditions-dependent because it is really important to me to remember that sometimes it is good to play the game a little bit, just in case,” she said. “But if I do qualify [for the final], I have that safety net that I get to come back to the tour no matter how I place in the final. And as sick as it would be to win the tour, I kind of just want to do some kind of crazy, wild run.
“I don’t think I’m reckless—I would never hit anything that I don’t think I can 100-per-cent land, but I kind of want to turn it up from 75 per cent of what I can do to 95. I am just hoping that I get that opportunity.”
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