Wanaka’s Finn Bilous has claimed the silver medal in Freeski Slopestyle at the Copper Mountain stop of the US Revolution tour this morning (Wednesday March 3).  

Finn was rewarded with a score of 90.75, just two points behind the winning score.

He laced together a technical run consisting of left double 1260 with a safety grab, a switch right double 1260 with a mute grab and a right double 1440 with a mute grab on the jumps.

He then linked a disaster right 450, switch off on the down flat down rail into a switch on, 450 out of the up-down rail.

The right double 1440 was a new variation of the trick for Finn, and the first time he has landed it in competition. 

Watch it here.

“It’s been awesome to be in Colorado working on new tricks like the double 1440 that I landed today; it was a great event to test out my new tricks before the World Champs next week,” he said. 

Kiernan Fagan (USA) took the win with a score of 92.75 and Ralph Konnor (USA) rounded out the podium in third.  

Fellow Wanaka freeskier Luca Harrington finished in seventh place today in the Slopestyle.  

Today marked Finn’s first slopestyle competition in over 13 months as a broken collarbone late in the 2020 New Zealand season resulted in him missing the first World Cup slopestyle of the 2021 season held in Austria in November.  

“Spending a little more time in New Zealand got me pretty amped up for skiing and the preparation for World Champs, [and] we’ve had a pretty successful month in Colorado. It has been nice to be based in one location for an extended period of training; it’s a luxury we don’t usually have in a pre-Olympic year.”  

Today’s result is a great confidence builder for Finn before he heads into the Freeski World Championships next weekend. 

“I am frothing for World Champs now; I am ready to unleash it,” he said.