Kaya Turski

Kaya Turski “Mammoth Hot Lappin’ State of Mind’”

kayaturski — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:59:36 +0000

Woohoo! Finally back here chillin’ in Mammoth after a busy competition season. I absolutely love shredding here in the spring sunshine!

Check out this new fun edit we filmed all with my little GoPro!

Stay tuned for more from Mammoth this spring

CNN: Female athletes discuss training and preps for 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi

kayaturski — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:26:47 +0000

Five female Olympic hopefuls talk about preparations for competing in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

American Ski Jumper Sarah Hendrickson, American Freestyle Moguls Skier Heather McPhie, American Snowboarder Arielle Gold, American-Norwegian Freestyle Skier Slopestyle Grete Eliassen and Canadian freestyle Skier Kaya Turski talk with John Berman on “Starting Point” about their training techniques, and what they’re looking forward to in 2014.

Pique News – Turski on top at Euro X Games slopestyle

kayaturski — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 01:17:09 +0000

Turski on top at Euro X Games slopestyle.

by Andrew Mitchell

click to enlarge

Montreal’s Kaya Turski successfully defended her European X Games slopestyle title for the fourth consecutive year on Thursday, March 21, holding off a Norwegian skier and teammate Dara Howell in the best-of-three final competition.

The athletes appealed to the organizers to delay the start of the event to let the fog and snow clear, and were rewarded with blue skies for the main event.

“Huge props to the organizers listening to us on this,” said Turski. “I think it’s a huge step in the right direction to recognize and acknowledge the safety issues on the course… that plays into and helps the progression of the sport, because the more comfortable and the more fun we’re having on course, the more athletes are going to shine and show their best.”

Turski won the FIS World Championships this year, but placed second in the X Games at Aspen. “I really wanted to come back and prove myself and get that top spot at X Games,” she said. “I feel like I came here wanting to prove that I still have my spot in the sport, especially among all these new young girls with so much talent.”

Turski’s run included a new trick that she calls her “Turkey Roll” and the smoothest rail slides of any competitor. Meanwhile Howell picked up the bronze medal with a run that included a corked 720 — one of the best in the sport right now.

Pemberton’s Yuki Tsubota breakout season continued with a fifth place result, further improving her chances of qualifying to represent Canada at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

In the men’s competition, Alex Bealieu-Marchand placed fifth while Noah Morrison was eighth. Both skiers are young, 19 and 18 respectively at Euro X Games.

In halfpipe, Canada was shut off the podium. Roz Groenewoud placed fourth in the women’s competition after battling flu all week. Her final score, an 84.3, was decent but not what she would usually see.

“I didn’t get as much training as I would have liked, but I skied really well,” she said. “My left five (540 spin) was quite a bit smaller than some of my other hits, so by comparison it was pretty small even if it was maybe the same height as some of the other girls.”

Groenewoud has been on four major podiums, but wasn’t her usual golden self this season. Instead of doing her stock run she’s been working to add new tricks and increase her air time.

“I think I made some big progress and worked on a few bad habits,” she said. “I took some steps back to fix some basics and I’m glad I did it because I have noticed that a lot of other girls are making the same mistakes I was and they’re going to have to go back and fix those basics at some point. Obviously I still need to get even better at them but I feel like there have been big improvements with a lot of my takeoffs.”

Keltie Hansen was sixth for Canada. French skiers Marie Martinod-Routin and Anais Caradeux were first and second with scores of 86.33 and 85.33, and Maddie Bownman of the U.S. was third with an 85.0.

On the men’s side, Mike Riddle placed fourth with a score of 90, behind American’s Torin Yater-Wallace (93.66) and David Wise (92.33), and French skier Kevin Rolland (91.66). Matt Margetts placed eighth after making the eight-skier final, while Noah Bowman just missed the finals in ninth place.

Immediately after the action at Tignes, France, Riddle was on his way to the World Cup finals at Sierra Nevada, Spain. Riddle and Groenewoud both won their categories, while Noah Bowman earned a bronze medal. Matt Margetts finished just off the podium in fourth place.

As well, Mike Riddle was presented with the FIS Crystal Globe as the overall halfpipe champion for the season.

“It’s such a cool trophy,” he said of his globe. “I started out as a mogul skier, so I’ve wanted a globe since well before I got into halfpipe. I can’t really believe I have one of my own now.”

While Riddle spends a lot of his time competing on the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) world tour, he said the FIS trophy was significant for him.

“Up to this point I’ve never really been able to show that kind of consistency and do well for a whole season.”

Riddle’s crystal globe is the third for the freestyle team. Mikael Kingsbury won the overall freestyle crystal globe and the globe for men’s moguls.

Girl on fire: Getting to know freeskier Kaya Turski | GrindTV.com

kayaturski — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:35:07 +0000

Girl on fire: Getting to know freeskier Kaya Turski | GrindTV.com.

Kaya Turski takes X Games gold and tells us how she did it

March 22, 2013 by Crishana Haynes

Freeskier Kaya Turski won her fourth straight women’s ski slopestyle title Thursday at X Games Tignes in France. As luck would have it, we had reached out to Kaya in the weeks preceding her win, asking her to offer us a peek into her life and share some training secrets. In the video below, she takes us on a tour of Mammoth Mountain, California, where she currently resides. She stops at her neighborhood coffee shop, does a workout at to her local gym, and visits her favorite bakery. Read on to find out what else we learned about the golden girl of freeskiing.

To our delight, Kaya is a girl’s girl. The Canadian-born freeskier possesses a natural instinct and sense of self that can sometimes get lost along the way to becoming a celebrity/professional athlete. But this girly side doesn’t prevent her from being a badass on the slopes. Indeed, she’s widely considered the most dominant freeskier competing today, she was the first female to land a switch 1080, and she won her 2010 Winter X Games gold medal with the highest slopestyle score ever at that event: 96.66.

But progression within her sport hasn’t come without obstacles—and tragedy. Organ injuries, two torn ACLs, and the sudden loss of friend and fellow freeskier Sara Burke, who died in early 2012 after a skiing accident, took their toll. In response to the pain, Kaya honed her mental game and incorporated visualization into her training. “I really think about it—I visualize every part of that rotation, that rail grind. If I can see it in my head, I believe I can do it on snow,” she said in a recent Red Bull interview.

Besides honing her mental game, Kaya works hard to stay in top physical shape. Here are some of her favorite exercises.

Kaya getting ready to twist; photo courtesy of Oakley

Reverse plank with stability ball

What it helps: balance and core strength.

Here she rolls the ball away from herself with her feet, getting into a reverse plank position. Then she pulls it back in, getting into a jack position. Then she crouches and twists, working simultaneously on balance and core.

Kaya doing box jumps; image courtesy of Oakley

Box jumps

What they help: lateral movement.

Box jumps require quick feet. Here she jumps up onto a platform with both feet facing forward and then quickly rotates and reverses the position and jumps down. Another variation of this is with weight. Using a 25-pound kettle ball, she jumps off a platform, rotating her body as she does so.

Kaya in a lunge with hand weights; photo courtesy of Oakley

One-footed bicep curls

What it helps: strength and balance.

Here she begins in a standing position with weights at her sides and feet together, then she kicks one foot out behind her and curls in weights for a number of reps. She ends the exercise with both feet on the ground and weights down by her sides, then she rotates sides.

Kaya on the bike: photo courtesy of Oakley

Cycling

What it helps: endurance and leg strength

Kaya spends 30 minutes on the bike every day sweating it out.

These are the tunes that keep her motivated:

Considering all the time Kaya spends training, she burns a lot of fuel. Here is one of her favorite breakfast recipes that she can easily prepare no matter where she is on the road.

Fill a bowl with the following items: granola, walnuts, almonds, banana slices, and berries

Blend together the following items: spinach, almond milk, frozen blueberries, and coconut-milk yogurt

Pour the smoothie over the granola, top with shredded coconut, and voila!

Redbull.com Xclusive video: Chasing gold medallist Kaya Turski

kayaturski — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:11:29 +0000

By Team on 22 March 2013 in Freeski

Find out more about slopestyle specialist Kaya Turski in this exclusive X Games video from Tignes.

Kaya won her fourth straight gold medal in the women’s ski slopestyle on Thursday, completing the first-ever four-peat in the history of X Games Tignes.

Having got off to a good start, leading after her first run, she then improved her score to a 93.33, posting the two highest scores of the final.

The star from Montreal, who admits it’s strange being one of the more experienced skiers at the age of just 24, said. “It’s a great feeling to come out on top again.”

The latest chapter in an already incredible freeskiing career, the Canadian insists that she just wants to enjoy herself as much as possible whenever she straps on her skis.

2013 X Games Tignes Gold Medal Run

kayaturski — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:11:50 +0000

GoPro Course Preview: Kaya Turski – X Games Tignes 2013

kayaturski — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:56:02 +0000

Freestyle World Championships Winning Run, Voss, Norway March 2013

kayaturski — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:43:43 +0000

Canadian Athlete of the Weekend: Kaya Turski

kayaturski — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:18:25 +0000

Montreal’s master of the ‘Turkey Roll’ golden in Norway

By Justin Piercy, CBC Sports

Posted: Mar 11, 2013 11:26 AM ET

Last Updated: Mar 11, 2013 11:23 AM ET

Kaya Turski shows off her gold medal after the women’s slopestyle final on Saturday in Voss, Norway. (Hakon Mosvold Larsen/Associated Press)

Kaya Turski wins Gold2:14

Every Monday, the CBCSports.ca team picks a Canadian athlete that excelled on the international stage over the weekend. This week’s award goes to freestyle skier and newly minted slopestyle world champion Kaya Turski:

When Kaya Turski needed it most, the Turkey Roll was there.

The Montreal freestyle skier said her signature trick, an off-axis jump with one-and-a-half rotations, was a key part of why she climbed to the top of the slopestyle podium in Voss, Norway, and can now call herself a world champion.

“I needed it if I was going to continue to win,” Turski said. “It took me out of my comfort zone at first but all my hard work has paid off and now I can throw it out there when I need to, like today.

“And now I get to say I’m world champion out loud. I can’t believe it — it’s awesome.”

As you can see, the 24-year-old posted a near-flawless final run of three rails and four jumps, which also netted her a provisional nomination for next year’s Sochi Games:

Around the world

Check out where Canada’s top athletes of the weekend were in action on our interactive map:

Honourable mentions

Dara Howell (Huntsville, Ont.) took silver in the same event in which Turski won gold.
Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs, Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden captured the Brier title in Edmonton for Northern Ontario.
Team Canada was eliminated by a loss to the U.S. at the World Baseball Classic but not before showing their fight (literally) against Mexico.
Dominique Maltais (Petite-Riviere-Saint Francois, Que.) was golden in snowboard cross, while Maelle Ricker (Squamish, B.C.) took silver.
Charles Hamelin, Michael Gilday, Oliver Jean and Charle Cournoyer defended their short track team pursuit world title in Debrecen, Hungary, while the women’s team of Marianne St. Gelais, Valerie Maltais, Marie-Eve Drolet and Jessica Hewitt skated to silver.
Hamelin (Sainte-Julie, Que.) also won individual bronze, along with Marianne St. Gelais (St. Felicien, Que.), in individual 1,500m event in Debrecen.
Matthew Morison (Kamloops, B.C.) nabbed silver while teammate Caroline Calve (Montreal) took bronze at the snowboard World Cup in Arosa, Switzerland.
Ivanie Blondin (Ottawa) took silver in the mass start and Christine Nesbitt (London. Ont.) skated to bronze in the 1,500 metres at a long track speedskating World Cup event in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
Nesbitt added that to the gold medal she won in the final World Cup 1,000-metre race of the season on Saturday.
Marielle Thompson (Whistler, B.C.) won ski cross silver at the freestyle world championships in Voss, Norway.

Canada’s Kaya Turski wins slopestyle gold

kayaturski — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 02:07:37 +0000

Fellow Canadian Dara Howell takes silver at freestyle worlds

The Associated Press
Posted: Mar 9, 2013 10:55 AM ET
Last Updated: Mar 9, 2013 7:43 PM ET

Kaya Turski, Canada, (centre) won the womens slopestyle final ahead of fellow Canadian Dara Howell, Canada (left) and American Grete Eliassen on Saturday in Voss, Norway. (Hakon Mosvold Larsen/Associated Press)