Even though she wasn’t competing in the 2010 Games, Chelsea Henitiuk’s 2010 Olympic experience sparked something important for the freestyle moguls skier.

Before the Games, the Whistler-based member of the national development team had one Nor Am Cup medal to her credit; since the Games, she’s captured three Nor-Am medals, including two golden performances.

It was quite the haul for the 21-year-old in back-to-back weekends of competition.

“I always knew I had it in me, but it had never happened before,” Henitiuk said on Sunday (March 7) about her medal-laden end to the Nor Am season, back in Whistler after winning gold and silver medals at the events in Steamboat Springs, Colo., last Thursday and Friday (March 4 and 5).

Henitiuk was honoured with a position forerunning the Olympic course, skiing through the Cypress run right before the Olympians began their competition, and her up-close look at the Games proved to be an invigorating and exciting experience.

“It was so fun. It was great to ski in front of so many people,” Henitiuk said, adding that it was just a bit scary, too.

A six-year member of the national development team, Henitiuk has competed at World Cup events before against some of the 2010 Olympic athletes, but she saw something different in their eyes this time around: It would be “all or nothing” in their runs, and they were all here to throw down everything they had in pursuit of Olympic glory.

When Henitiuk headed to Apex Mountain for the second-to-last Nor Am Cup events of this season, she found a renewed confidence powering her to ski even faster and give even more in her runs. She had started her season strongly, with three top-six finishes in FIS Race events and solid performances at World Cup competitions, but then hit a bit of a slump mid-season.

The Games “got me remotivated,” Henitiuk said. “That just kind of got the ball rolling. I started to ski better, and I felt more confident.”

She started the Apex events with a seventh-place finish in the Feb. 27 single moguls competition, and followed that one day later with her first career Nor Am win in the dual moguls event.

“It was kind of unexpected… My new aggressive approach paid off,” Henitiuk said of her dual moguls gold.

In recent events, Henitiuk said, she had felt more concerned about delivering perfect performances; at Apex, she was all about being aggressive and skiing in the moment.

“I felt so good, my skiing was really good,” she said.

Carrying that confidence into last week’s final Nor Am events at Steamboat Springs, Henitiuk opened with a golden performance in Thursday’s moguls event, a gold medal that meant even more to her than her dual moguls victory.

“That one felt pretty good, to finally win one,” she said.

In her final run, she improved her back flip on the top air of the Colorado course, setting her up better for the rest of her run and her unique front flip on the bottom air. Henitiuk is perhaps the only woman doing a back flip and front flip in the same run in single moguls competition.

The native of Spruce Grove, Alta., followed her two consecutive victories with a silver-medal finish in Friday’s dual moguls event, while Whistler resident and national development team member Eddie Hicks captured his first Nor Am gold medal in the men’s event.

“I was totally in shock, two golds in a row,” Henitiuk said of her feelings going into the final Nor Am competition of the season. The last event was pressure-free, and she was happy with its silver lining.

Henitiuk finishes the 2009-’10 season third in the overall women’s Nor Am standings, and hopes she has put herself in a good position to challenge for a spot starting on the World Cup circuit next season.

Hicks also finishes third in the Nor Am men’s standings, having won a silver medal in the Feb. 27 men’s single moguls event at Apex.

Six national medals for WBFSC members

When three Whistler Blackcomb Freestyle Ski Club members headed east for the 2010 Canada Post Junior National Freestyle Championships, Pemberton’s Yuki Tsubota demonstrated her versatility and range by winning medals in all four of her events.

Coach Andrew Clough said that normally by Tsubota’s age, freestyle competitors are standing out in one discipline more than the others, but Tsubota is bucking that trend.

“It’s really impressive for her to medal in everything,” he said.

Tsubota won gold in the first-ever slopestyle competition at junior nationals, picked up a silver medal in her dual moguls event, and earned two bronze medals in her moguls and air contests. She’ll move on to compete in the senior national championships in Calgary at the end of the month, as one of the youngest athletes there.

Teammate Nicola Halliwell soared to two silver medals, finishing second in the inaugural slopestyle event and in her big air competition. She also finished eighth in her single moguls event.

“It was a good event for her… She was one of the only girls doing a 720 in the (big air competition),” Clough said.

Jake McGregor held his own against a high level of competition in his age category, with a top finish of 17th in his slopestyle event and

The junior national championships ran from Feb. 24 to 28 at the Ski Wentworth facility near Truro, N.S., which will host the Canada Winter Games next season. Clough said the event sites were “really well done.”