Pellegrini earns snowboard bronze at B.C. Nationals

April 15, 2015 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte
On the biggest stage of her life, young snowboard cross competitor Emma Pellegrini came through in the clutch to claim a bronze medal in national competition.
“I started snowboarding when I was about seven or eight,” said Pellegrini, who turns 15 next week. “I moved to boardercross about five years ago.”
Wanting to move out of the casual-snowboarder persona early on, the relatively new sport of boardercross jumped out at Pellegrini as a challenge to pursue.
“I checked out slopestyle and racing, but neither of them seemed really appealing to me,” said Pellegrini. “So my mom looked into more options, and it just stuck with me.”
The daughter of King Mayor Steve Pellegrini put in her dues at the provincial level, earning top spot in Ontario competition in order to secure her position at Snowboard Cross Nationals in Big White, British Columbia in early April.
The large, seemingly infinite mountains of Kelowna were like nothing she had ever seen before. Pellegrini had never competed outside of the province.
“It was so much more fun, I couldn’t believe it. My first day out on the course I only did about seven runs … you don’t realize how much bigger then runs are!”
She said the sunny weather and good conditions made the experience a trip of a lifetime.
Competition-wise, she didn’t know what to expect from her opponents.
“The competition wasn’t like anything I’d seen before,” said Pellegrini. “It was really challenging.”
Despite that, she finished the qualification round with the top time in the U15 bracket, narrowly edging her opponent by just over a tenth of a second. She took third in the finals, and was the top Ontario racer.
Also in the Nationals was King City’s Haili Moyer, fresh off the World Junior Championships in China late last month.
Moyer put up the 13th-best time in qualifications in the women’s bracket, but failed to make it out of her quarter-final race.
“I watched some of her races, she looked good.”
Pellegrini is part of Alpine Ski Club, partners of resorts like Beaver Valley and Craigleith. In the winter, she’s on the hill with her team practicing every weekend, and gets out as often as possible during the week.
“It’s nice because I have a small team,” said Pellegrini. “I’ve had the same coach for a few years now, we get a lot of one-on-one time.”
In the off-season, Pellegrini plays rep soccer in King, along with her dry land training.