The Canadian Freestyle Ski Association announced its team rosters for the 2013 season on Thursday.
Canada's national slopestyle and halfpipe teams -- which were first officially created this year after the sports were added to the Olympic program for 2014 last spring and summer -- have a few new members this year.
The Canadian Halfpipe team is made of up A team members Noah Bowman, Mike Riddle, Justin Dorey and Roz Groenewoud. The B team includes Matt Margetts, Simon D'Artois, Megan Gunning, Keltie Hansen, and Dania Assaly.
The Slopestyle team has Alex Bellemare, JF Houle, Kaya Turski and Dara Howell on the A team, and Alexi Godbout, Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, Charles Gagnier, Jamieson Irvine, Noah Morrison, Vincent Gagnier, TJ Schiller, Kim Lamarre, and Yuki Tsubota on the B team.
"Slopestyle is where we're seeing the most new faces emerge right now," said CFSA's High Performance Program Director David Mirota. "Next year's slopestyle team is a veritable teen invasion, with more than half of them under 20. It's really exciting to see so much young talent coming up and great that they will be able to mix with more experienced and successful athletes like Kaya Turski and JF Houle."
Trennon Paynter will continue to coach the halfpipe team, and JF Cusson heads up the slopestyle team. "Every year this sport evolves so much," said Cusson. "The younger generation has less fear and less injuries so they're able to adapt and change their style fast to follow the progression."
The qualification process for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, begin this summer at FIS World Cup events held in August in New Zealand.
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