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On Sunday, February 16, Freeskier caught up with Canadian Dara Howell in the village at Rosa Khutor, six days after she secured the first-ever Olympic gold medal in slopestyle. The nearly 17-minute-long sound byte is available below; excerpts from the conversation are posted, as well.

Click to listen: Dara Howell re: Olympic slopestyle gold.

Dara says:

“It’s been a process. I’ve learned a lot, just kinda going out and having fun and just doing the best that I can. X Games was definitely a disappointment but it all paid off here.”

“To have these legends saying that you’re skiing well, it’s pretty incredible, I wasn’t expecting it. I do look up to the boys a lot in our sport, they’re always out there pushing it, and I kinda just wanna keep pushing myself and having fun.”

“The morning of the competition, I tried to just treat it like any other: be nervous, don’t really have breakfast, [laughs] go through all the emotions, but I feel like once I put my skis on, I get back to doing what I like to do, having fun.”

“It’s the biggest honor. [Sarah Burke’s] the only reason that we’re able to stand here today, and the reason that I’m here, and I know that she’s extremely proud and wants to see all of us just keep pushing the sport as much as we can, and pushing ourselves, she’s definitely here with us.”

“Hidden Valley put on a little fundraiser for me. We had some fun. They’re so supportive, and they had a really big party at the ski hill while I was competing, I’ve seen video from it, there’s like, 200 people there, and it just goes insane after my run. I love coming from a small town, and I can’t wait to go home.”

“[From here on out] watch as many hockey games as we can. That is the plan. See Canada win that gold medal…”

Related: Olympic silver medalist, Gus Kenworthy, recounts Sochi experience thus far