HSB26: Freestyle skier Matthew Lepine thankful for local support as he sets course for 2030 Olympics

By Keiran Gorsky

The end of high school often brings about a whirlwind of emotions – a mix of celebration and sadness, nostalgia and excitement.

Those feelings were amplified in every way for the family of freestyle skier Matthew Lepine as they bid farewell to their long-time Ottawa home.

Some 30 people crowded into the old Lepine house for a sumptuous feast and a confetti-strewn gathering. Colourful balloons and paper cutouts decorated the walls; guests gorged themselves on pulled pork sandwiches and a massive slab cake.

After a long year away from home in pursuit of his sport, Lepine returned to Ottawa for his graduation from Colonel By Secondary School.

The party marked a hometown pit stop for the NextGen national team athlete on a road that he hopes will ultimately land him at the Alpes 2030 Olympic Winter Games.

With past and present teammates and coaches in attendance, Lepine couldn’t help but fondly recall the earliest parts of that journey. So many of his formative years were spent at Camp Fortune, tailing his two older brothers.

“I was going up on the weekends, and just like idolizing what they were doing and skiing a couple feet behind them – not to be in the way, but trying what they were doing to be cool,” reflects Lepine, who followed his siblings onto the Chelsea, QC hill’s freestyle team as soon as he was old enough.

Lepine started, literally, in their shadows, but came into his own with a ferocity. He sported something of a quirky style in his youth, but wore it with unflappable confidence.

It hadn’t become any less nerve-wracking for Lepine’s mother Erin to watch a third child spiralling through the air, but her youngest child showed no signs of fear.

“He was progressing so much faster than his other brothers had, so that was kind of new to me. That was the indication that he had such great talent,” recounts Erin, who spent several days organizing the graduation party.

It all seemed to come to Lepine so naturally as a youth. He started making his own friends on the Gatineau Hills. He looked forward to returning every weekend and learning new skills. He began competing in and winning events against skiers several years his senior.

It wasn’t long before Lepine was flying out to competitions and missing entire weeks of school. Competing in what Lepine admits is still a relatively niche sport, it was sometimes difficult to explain those extended absences to teachers.

However niche, the sport still carried with it extremely high expenses. As competitions got further and further from home, travel costs ballooned into quintuple digits. The price for an elite freestyle skiing season is now pegged at $50,000+ for international travel, specialized gear, training camps and competition fees.

Even on two incomes, Erin and her husband asked for family assistance to support Matthew’s endeavours. For his family’s ongoing support, Lepine is eternally grateful.

“It’s unbelievable how much support I’ve had since the start. It means a lot. I wouldn’t be able to do it without them,” underlines Lepine, who has an ongoing fundraising drive for tax-deductible donations through Snow Athletes Canada.

Lepine put their help to good use at home and abroad. He blasted onto the international scene with a silver medal at the U19 world championships in New Zealand as a 15-year-old.

Read More: Freestyle skier Matthew Lepine, 15, loudly announces arrival on global stage with U19 worlds silver

Despite several significant injuries along the way, the 2024 Youth Olympian has continued to post impressive results, including a seventh-place standing on the 2025/26 North American Cup circuit for the combined slopestyle and big air rankings.

Lepine also gained notoriety when he landed a switch triple bio 14 – believed to be the first person to ever land the trick on snow. The backwards jump requires the skier to complete a full 180° turn into a triple flip, finishing with another 90° turn to land in the same position they started.

“When you land a trick that nobody in the world has ever done before, it changes the way you think about what’s possible,” signals Lepine, who hit the jump while training in New Zealand. “That moment told me that the ceiling is only where you decide to put it — and I haven’t decided to put it anywhere yet.”

Freestyle skier moves west in quest for 2030 Games

Things have a way of transpiring in an instant for the young athlete on the upswing. At senior nationals last year in Whistler, Erin found herself in conversation with the mother of Malcolm Farris – another of Canada’s freestyle prodigies and one of Matthew’s close friends.

Farris had moved to Calgary some years earlier to be closer to the slopes and felt the change in environment had done the skier from Nova Scotia a lot of good. Within a few days, the Lepines had decided that he should follow suit.

The move immediately paid dividends for Lepine, who joined up with the Calgary Freeriderz. He suddenly had access to Canadian Sport Institute resources and a host of other amenities. After a day on the hill, Lepine might take a dip in the hot tub or cold plunge. He can even squeeze in a quick physiotherapy session if he’s feeling sore.

In May while in Whistler, Lepine received a very important phone call. He was told he had been chosen to join Canada’s NextGen slopestyle and big air team, designed to guide emerging skiers and snowboarders to the top international levels. For Lepine, the early graduation present served as a major milestone in his pursuit of a berth in the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps.

“Just to have those coaches be out there at the competitions and see me ski, and then decide, okay, that’s a skier we want on the team – it’s a nice, nice thing to see and feel,” Lepine indicates.

He won’t have to do it as far from family as he might have imagined. Rather coincidentally, Lepine’s father Wayne recently got a job in Edmonton, and Erin relocated there in March. Lepine was happy to make the three-hour drive from Calgary to be with his father for his birthday breakfast.

In that way, the party back in Ottawa doubled as a goodbye to their Beacon Hill home. At the event, Erin gave a teary, off-the-cuff speech.

“All of you have been part of this,” she told the crowd. “Matthew’s done a lot of work. Matthew, you earned this, but it takes a village.”

Read More of our 2026 High School Best Series as we tip our caps to top local student-athletes at: OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-High-School-Best-2026