Dara Howell (born August 23, 1994) is a Canadian freestyle skier. She was the first freestyle skier to win a gold medal in ski slopestyle at the inaugural event at the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

. Howell has also won a bronze medal in women's slopestyle at the

Winter X Games XVII Winter X Games XVII (re-titled Winter X Games Aspen '13; styled as Winter X Games Seventeen in the official logo) were held from January 24 to January 27, 2013, in Aspen, Colorado. They were the 12th consecutive Winter X Games to be held in Aspen. ...

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, behind

Tiril Sjåstad Christiansen Tiril Sjåstad Christiansen (born 7 April 1995) is a Norwegian freestyle skier. She hails from Geilo and represents Geilo IL. She won her first Winter X Games medal in the Women's Slopestyle at the Winter X Games XVII in Aspen, Colorado. She won ...

and

Kaya Turski Kaya Turski (born May 3, 1988) is a Canadian freestyle skier. She is an eight-time Winter X Games champion in Women's Ski slope style. At the 2010 Winter X Games XIV held in Aspen, she won her gold medal with the highest ever slopestyle score at ...

Career

Dara first competed at the Winter X Games in Aspen 2012, and was the youngest female competitor. She followed this with a Bronze Medal in the 2012 Winter X Games in Tignes. As of 2019, Dara has won 4 medals at the Winter X Games. At the 2014 Winter Olympics Howell started competition as a gold medal threat together with compatriot

. Turski was favoured ahead of her but was sick on the day of competition and crashed out in both of her qualifying runs, failing to make the final. In the final Howell had a successful first run scoring a 94.2, a run and score which would hold up as the eventual gold medal winner.

Kim Lamarre Kim Lamarre (born 20 May 1988) is a Canadian freestyle skier. She won Canada's first ever bronze medal in the women's slopestyle skiing event at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Lamarre said of her surprise bronze that "This is surreal. I have no words ...

a fellow Canadian finished in third to complete another two medal event for Canada at those Olympics. Howell, like many of the Canadian women in freestyle competition was close to freestyle skier

Sarah Burke Sarah Jean Burke (September 3, 1982 – January 19, 2012) was a Canadian freestyle skier who was a pioneer of the superpipe event. She was a five-time Winter X Games gold medallist, and won the world championship in the halfpipe in 2005. She s ...

, who died while on a training run a few years before the sport was inaugurated as an Olympic event. Burke had coached Howell at Momentum Ski Camps in Whistler Blackcomb. She dedicated her victory to Burke saying "Oh, my God. I don't know what to say. I can't believe it. It is so surreal and I am so happy to win a gold medal for Canada. I don't think it will hit me until later. It is truly amazing. There are a number of really good girls out there and I came out on top. This is the best moment in my entire life...I said it earlier this week, I hope a Canadian brings home a gold medal for Sarah. I can't believe it's me. It's totally for Sarah and I cannot believe it." Even though she was struggling with injuries and personal pressures after the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Dara still qualified and competed for Canada at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Dara's 2018/2019 was derailed by an injury at the Big Air World Cup in New Zealand, resulting in a torn anterior cruciate knee ligament. The injury required surgery, and Dara missed the rest of the season while she recovered. Dara returned to competition in November 2019 at the Modena Skipass World Cup in Modena, Italy. After finishing in first place after Qualifying, Dara took home the Bronze medal.

Personal

Howell was born in

Huntsville, Ontario Huntsville is a town in Muskoka. It is located north of Toronto and south of North Bay. Of the three big Muskoka towns, it is the largest by population (21,147 per 2021 census) and land area (710.64 km2). Huntsville is located in the ...

. She attended Tawingo College and Huntsville Public School, and graduated from Huntsville High School. She also has taken courses with VLC. Dara has an older brother named Brett. Dara shared publicly about the personal challenges she faced after winning a Gold Medal at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Howell, Dara 1994 births Canadian female freestyle skiers Living people People from Huntsville, Ontario Sportspeople from Ontario X Games athletes Freestyle skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic freestyle skiers of Canada Olympic gold medalists for Canada Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in freestyle skiing