Whitefish's Voisin injures ankle, won't ski in Winter Olympics

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — Whitefish slopestyle skier Maggie Voisin will not be competing at the Olympics next week after injuring her right ankle in training on Friday.

The 15-year-old was training on a rail feature on the slopestyle course at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park when she got hurt. Doctors deemed she couldn’t recover in time for Tuesday’s competition.

The youngest Olympian in 20 years, she will not be replaced at the event.

Voisin put herself into medal conversation in recent weeks, after a second place finish at the X Games, where she landed only the second switch 1080 in women’s competition. She also finished second in the first Olympic qualifying event of the season, making the podium on her birthday.

The slopestyle course has drawn criticism in the lead up to the games, with many competitors questioning the course design. According to the Associated Press, among the problems they’re dealing with are too-steep takeoff ramps that don’t exactly mesh with the pitch of the landings. The transition areas between the jumps aren’t very big, so it’s hard to build up the speed needed to get the air the steepest jumps demand.

Two male snowboarders have pulled out of the slopestyle competition with injuries and American star Shaun White withdrew in protest, citing the danger of the course. Top American female snowboarder Jamie Anderson called the course conditions questionable for the female contenders.

“It’s a challenging course. A lot of impact for everyone,” Anderson told the AP after scoring a 93.5 in the first day of qualifying. “Little 15 year olds are, like, ‘I’m not even old and my back is still sore every day. Not even from crashing, just from riding.”’

However, the course has shown results in competition. On the opening day, eight of 29 men scored in the 90s, including leader Max Parrot of Canada, who scored a 97.5, just 2.5 points off a perfect score.