Montreal water skier claims second straight Junior Masters Women’s trick title

Hannah Stopnicki — a competitive water skier from Montreal’s West Island — clinched her second straight Junior Masters Women’s trick title in May in Pine Mountain, Georgia, and she did it in convincing fashion scoring 7,290 points, which was 1,300 more than the next closest competitor.

“It was so exciting. I mean, look, winning is awesome. I love winning. I think it’s it’s super fun,” said Stopnicki.  

“I just decided to take every last moment in and just enjoy the process and went out completed my runs really good, had some little bobbles wasn’t perfect, but kind of just used my grit to get through it and that was awesome.”

With the Junior Masters victory, Stopnicki adds to her long list of water ski titles over the years. She is the current Junior World Champion, a two-time PanAm Champion, and a four-time Canadian National Champion. 

“About six months ago I started to realize that I have potential and I want to make the most of it. I started to take every single moment of my training as an opportunity to reach my goals,” she explained.​​​​​​​

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Montreal water skier Hannah Stopnicki making waves around the world

“I want to learn some of the biggest tricks,” said Montreal water skier Hannah Stopnicki, after finishing fifth in the women’s trick event at the U21 World Waterski championships last week as a 17-year-old. Gareth Madoc-Jones reports.

Stopnicki was also recently named to the Canadian National Water Ski team. She has moved up from the Junior National team, and at just 18-years-old, is the youngest athlete on the roster. 

“It’s super exciting. It’s a 13-person team I believe the best on the team are like 10-time world champions, super accomplished and these people are huge inspirations, definitely people I look up to.” 

Stopnicki first started water skiing at Lac de la Montagne Noire in Lantier, about a hundred fifteen kilometres north of Montreal. In recent years, she has been spending much of her time training in Orlando, Florida at Matt Rini’s waterski school.

“Being on the water it’s really freeing experience, especially when I started learning flips. It’s just it’s so cool. It’s to learn a new trick. It’s the most exciting moment and I honestly love the process and the hard work waking up every morning at five to get to the lake and ski first thing. I think it’s the best,” said Stopnicki. 

Next up for Stopnicki is competing against the pros in two tournaments in Europe, one in Monaco, and the other in Spain.

“I definitely think that maybe it’s a little bit intimidating to be tricking 7,000-8,000 points when they’re tricking 10,000-11,000, but I also do think that it gives you something to look up to and I definitely think it’s more motivating than intimidating.”