It’s all downhill from here for Malcolm Farris.
The 17-year-old, who grew up on the snowy landscapes of Ski Wentworth, is rapidly progressing through the ranks of freestyle skiing, having captured Nova Scotia’s first medal in a Canada Winter Games with a bronze in the big air competition in February, a month after claiming gold at a Canada Cup competition at the Sun Peaks resort in British Columbia.
Previous results included gold at the 2022 Freestyle Canada junior nationals and making the finals at the 2022 Sun Peaks Canada Cup.
Farris stepped onto the international stage in August, having been selected to represent Canada at the world junior championships in New Zealand, where he finished 13th in slopestyle and 11th in big air.
As the 2023-24 season unfolds, Farris’ eyes are set on a podium finish at a FIS freestyle skiing NorAm event, Canada Cups, with the long-term plan to compete with the best at a global level.
In his own words, Farris talks about his upbringing in the sport and his plans for the future:
Starting out
The first time I remember doing freestyle, I was four years old, I think, and me and my cousin would go out with these little boxes on the hill all day. He was a lot older than me, so he’d teach me how to slide the boxes and we’d do that every weekend.
“The first I remember being on a hill, I was two or three going up the bunny hill with my mom or my dad and they’d have the harness on me, just teaching me how to balance myself. All I could think about was how cold it is.”
Realizing his talent
“The first time I did a backflip, I was eight or nine years old, and I was the youngest person from our hill to ever do a backflip on snow (at Wentworth), so that really stood out for me. More recently, I was planning a ski trip during the summer, and just to even be thinking about that made me realize that this is something I really want to do.”
Canada Games
“I was mainly going there for experience, everybody had told me how fun it was, and just to be there with other skiers from across Canada that I didn’t really know. I wasn’t expecting myself to medal, but I wasn’t ruling it out, either.
“The big air final was at night (because of a weather delay), so they opened up the hill just for us and bused a bunch of people out to see us. I was going up the chair for my second run, just by myself, and I was thinking how cool it would be to medal not just for myself, but for Freestyle Nova Scotia, Wentworth and everyone that’s supported me. I did my trick and thought it went well, but when I came down and looked at the scoreboard, I was fourth, but then the judges did a re-evaluation and I wound up third.”
What’s next
“I have six competitions this season all around North America, and to medal at that would be the obvious goal. World Cup level competitions would be amazing, and the Olympics some day would be the ultimate goal.”
