25 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,F ebruary 3,2022 insidehalton.com *Plus HST. See full terms and condi�ons at tsoffers.ca/deal/CTSWGIFT. This introductory offer is not available to current Toronto Star subscribers. Offer includes the Saturday and Sunday edi�on of the Toronto Star Newspaper and Starweek magazine. The New York Times Interna�onal Weekly and Book Review sec�on is not included. Save 46% off the newsstand rate. Home delivery will con�nue a�er the 12-month introductory period at the regular home-delivery rate then in effect. Contact customer service at 1-800-268-9213 or 416-367-4500 to get the regular rate for your area. Payment must be made by credit card only. View our subscriber agreement at thestar.com/agreement and our privacy policy at thestar.com/privacy. **The $25 Metro gi� card will be delivered to you once your first payment is processed successfully. Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery of your gi� card. Refunds are not available for the value of the gi� card. Subscrip�ons cancelled prior to the end of the subscrip�on term will be charged back for the value of the gi� card. Offer expires February 28, 2022. WEEKEND HOME DELIVERY NOW $3.99* a week for 12 months LIMITED-TIMEOFFER! 46%OFF SUBSCRIBE ONLINE: tsoffers.ca/deal/CTSWGIFT OR CALL: 416-367-4500 and quote code CTSWGIFT METRO GIFT CARD GET A $$2525$25** WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE orecoupons,more flyers, moresavings. save.ca/flyers Find the Loblaws flyer andmore on Save.caFind the Loblaws flyer andmore on Save.ca Scan to view flyer. Disclaimer: flyer pictured is for illustrative purposes only and may not reflect the current flyer. View the flyer on Save.ca for the current flyer for your location. MoreN EW ! From the first time he ventured into a terrain park, Evan McEachran was hooked. He'd been skiing almost as long as he'd been walk- ing, but his love for skiing became an obsession after he found the jumps and rails in the terrain park. Knowing he couldn't make it to the hills every day, the 11-year-old made his own rails out of PVC pipe and set them up in his back- yard. More than a decade lat- er, with an Olympics and two X Games medals to his credit, McEachran had long outgrown his home- made rails. He carried his creation that helped him perfect those earliest tricks and set it on the curb outside his family's home. Later, McEachran no- ticed a few kids looking at the rails. "Can we have these?" they asked. "Sure," he replied. "What are you going to use them for?" McEachran was thrilled to discover they were skiers -- who eventu- ally pieced together they were talking to an Olympi- an -- and were going to use the rails for the exact pur- pose they were built. It wasn't long ago McEa- chran had to provide an ex- planation when he told people he was a slopestyle skier. But garbage day in Oakville showed him just how far the sport has come. Slopestyle was still five years away from joining the Olympics when he made his backyard rails. There was no goal of mak- ing it to the Olympics -- he would have stayed in al- pine skiing if that was the case. Slopestyle was just a lot of fun. And the Olympics have helped showcase that to young athletes. "A lot of kids are coming into the sport and the Olympics are an important part of that," he said. "Hopefully it encourages them to get a pair of twin tips and get out there on the terrain park." McEachran heads to his second Olympics next week. In addition to looking to improve his sixth-place finish in slope- style in Pyeongchang in 2018, he will be among the athletes debuting big air. "I think it's amazing," the 24-year-old said. "Big air is really pushing the limits and we can show the world what's possible on a pair of skis." After a season of consis- tent top 10 slopestyle fin- ishes, McEachran broke through with a bronze medal at the final World Cup in California earlier this month. "I've been working to- ward doing my biggest tricks in contests," he said, "so to be able to do that, it was another step forward to landing my best runs in Beijing." McEachran has already proven his ability to land on the podium on the big- gest of stages. He earned a silver medal at the 2020 XGames and added a bronze last year. "That was a massive ac- complishment," McEa- chran said, "a childhood dream." With the addition of big air to the Olympics, McEa- chran is a double threat. He finished fifth at last year's world champion- ships, where his score of 178.75 left him just two points shy of the podium. And as he aims to add an Olympic medal to his list of accomplishments, McEa- chran will no doubt have a group of young skiers watching him, wondering if they can someday ride the same PVC rails to the Olympics. Evan McEachran is looking to improve his 6th place slopestyle finish at the 2018 Olympics. He'll also compete in big air, which is new to the Winter Games. Freestyle Canada photo WINTER GAMES 2022 HERB GARBUTT hgarbutt@metroland.com SLOPESTYLE SKIER SETS SIGHTS ON OLYMPIC MEDAL