Voisin goes big in slopestyle

Whitefish Mountain Resort freestyle

skier Maggie Voisin brought home in April a national championship

in slopestyle from the USASA Nationals at Copper Mountain in

Colorado.

Competing against 15 of the best girls

in her age class from across the country, 12-year-old Voisin

overcame a tough opening run to put down a winning segment that

included two 360-degree spins and a 720-degree spin.

The Whitefish Middle School student was

the only girl to spin off of the big jumps and her final score was

the best of the day against all competitors, including boys and

girls.

She credited her coach TJ Andrews for

helping her plan the run and achieve her goal.

“I couldn’t have done it without him,”

Voisin said.

Voisin started skiing when she was 2

years old, but didn’t get serious about slopestyle until three

seasons ago. This year, she squeezed in 52 days on the snow at Big

Mountain between school and traveling to competitions.

“I finally got more style this year and

started doing more technical things,” she said.

She’s working on a 900-degree spin —

that’s 2 1/2 rotations — but says it’s tough while training at Big

Mountain’s Fish Bowl terrain park.

“I haven’t landed one yet, but our

jumps are too small to do one,” she said.

She needs to train at more progressive

parks where jumps more than 55 feet are common. Catching that much

air doesn’t scare her, either.

“Once you get used to big jumps,” she

said. “They are super floaty and fun.”

This summer she’ll be training at

Windells ski camp on Mount Hood in Oregon and at Park City, Utah.

Her goal is to join the USSA Revolution Tour next winter and

eventually make the Dew Tour and ESPN X-Games.

“There is something about skiing that

makes me connect,” she said. “I love the adrenaline, trying new

things and going out and trying to do your best. There is something

special about it that makes it important to me.”