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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | July 19, 1985 (age 38) Victoriaville, Quebec | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  Canada | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Freestyle skiing | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Event | Slopestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Charles Gagnier (born July 19, 1985 in Victoriaville, Quebec) is a Canadian freeskier, best known for inventing the Octograb in 2006. [1] [2] [3]
Gagnier began skiing with his family at Canada's Mont-Sainte-Anne resort. [4] He started his competitive career as an alpine ski racer in Quebec, Canada before switching to freestyle skiing. He credits his brother Antoine for pushing him towards freeskiing, introducing him to twin tips at age 15. [5] Gagnier's first major competitive freestyle skiing win was in the U.S. Freeskiing Open Big Air Invitational at Copper Mountain in Frisco, Colorado. [6] [7] He won Gold in Men's Ski Slopestyle at the 2005 Winter X Games IX in Aspen, Colorado. [8] [9] At the 2006 Winter X Games X, he placed second in the Men's Ski Big Air event to T.J. Schiller, and at the 2008 Winter X Games XII, he again placed second in the Men's Ski Big Air event to Jon Olsson. [10] [11] In 2012 and 2013, he won the Slopestyle ski event at Red Bull Playstreets. [12]
Gagnier has two brothers, Antoine and Vincent. [13]
Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and boxes on their skis. Known as "hot-dogging" in the early 1970s, it is also commonly referred to as freeskiing, jibbing, as well as many other names, around the world.
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