A Springbank snowboarder jumped and raced her way to a pair of medals at the recent 2023 Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island earlier this month, despite her preferred event not among those offered at the two-week, multi-sport competition.
Fifteen-year-old snowboarder Felicity Geremia finished in third place of the big air competition and second in the parallel giant slalom, continuing what has already been a whirlwind, medal-filled season for the Springbank athlete.
“It was crazy – I wasn’t expecting to be near the podium,” she said.
“It was a heck of a time, that’s for sure.”
In addition to her two podium placements, Geremia also finished fifth in both the snowboard cross and the slopestyle at the Canada Winter Games.
But none of the events she competed in during her stay on Canada's east coast are considered Geremia's strongest – for most of the snowboard season, she's a competitive half-pipe specialist. According to Geremia, half pipe wasn't one of the snowboard events at this year's Canada Winter Games.
“In P.E.I., I don’t think they could build one,” she said. “We were just on a little hill that had a bunch of jumps and stuff.”
As evidence of her strength in half pipe, Geremia competed in her first half-pipe world cup in December, finishing 13th at a competition hosted at Colorado's Copper Mountain.
She improved upon that showing by coming in seventh at another world cup event at Calgary's Canadian Olympic Park – the half pipe she's most familiar with – despite being the youngest competitor at the event. As a result of her two world cup events, Geremia finished the world cup circuit season ranked 16th overall.
The 15-year-old is currently ranked third overall in the NorAm Cup, and will be heading to Mammoth Mountain in California on March 12 to compete at another event on that tour.
Earlier this season, Geremia also won the World Rookie Tour (WRT) event at Copper Mountain in January, which earned her an invite to the WRT Championships this month in Austria.
After her upcoming trip to Mammoth Mountain, Geremia said she'll wrap up the 2022-23 season by competing at the junior national championships in Calgary later this month, and then her last comp will be the U.S. nationals in April.
Despite her jam-packed snowboarding schedule, it's not even the only sport Geremia competes in. She also plays competitive soccer for Calgary West Soccer Club in the Alberta Youth Soccer League (AYSL) – the highest level of soccer available for youth players in Alberta – as well as competitive softball for a U17 team called the Calgary Adrenaline.
Her soccer team recently finished second in the AYSL regular season and will be heading to the provincial championships in three weeks.
In order to accommodate her hectic athletics career, Geremia studies at the Edge School, not far from her family's home in Springbank. The private school caters to elite-level student-athletes who may need to miss a lot of classes due to their athletic commitments.
Needless to say, that's an arrangement that works perfectly for Geremia.
“They’re pretty flexible with my academics and my athletics,” she said. “I’ve missed around seven weeks this year, so far.”
