Canada Snowboard officially announced its team for the upcoming Olympic season, and as expected the ranks reflect the performance of top athletes on the pro circuit in recent seasons — and especially in the newly sanctioned sport of snowboard slopestyle.

It's also a big team, which reflects the addition of slopestyle and parallel slalom to the Games schedule, as well as the team's increased funding as a result of strong results over the past few seasons.

There are 34 athletes on the roster, which will be battling for a maximum of 24 quota spots for Canada at the Sochi Winter Games, no more of 14 of which can be male or female.

The list includes several Whistler/Squamish athletes including defending Olympic gold medallist Maëlle Ricker, 2010 Olympic finalist Mercedes Nicoll, Brad Martin, halfpipe hopeful Alexandra Duckworth and Derek Livingstone.

At least six athletes have already qualified for the Games based on their results last season, a group that includes slopestyle athletes Mark McMorris, Sebastian Toutant and Spencer O'Brien, as well as snowboardcross racers Chris Robanske, Ricker and Dominique Maltais.

The list of national para-snowboard athletes wasn't confirmed, but Whistler's Tyler Mosher will be on that list.

"I couldn't be happier for all the athletes that have already earned provisionary nominations for Sochi," said Robert Joncas, high performance director for Canada Snowboard.

"I know that the rest of the team members will give it their all in the coming months. This is what they have been working towards for a very long time and I'm confident our team will make Canada proud this winter."

Canada's goal at Sochi is to win five medals, and have three quarters of athletes place in the top 16 of their events.

To qualify for the Olympics, athletes need to meet requirements set by their own sanctioning body (Canada Snowboard), the Canadian Olympic Committee and the International Skiing Federation (FIS). The FIS requirements are the easiest to meet, requiring athletes to finish in the top 30 in a World Cup, World Championship or accredited professional event between July 2012 and January 2014. Athletes need at least 100 FIS points from the current season by Jan. 24, 2014.

Countries first have to earn quota spots for their athletes — a maximum of four men and four women in any discipline — then decide themselves who fills those spots using an internal process. All of the disciplines have slightly different standards within the Canadian system.

The team collectively raked in a total of 55 podiums this past season, including medals from World Cup competitions, from the World Championships and from pro events including X Games, Euroe X Games and the U.S. Open.

Source: piquenewsmagazine.com