A SURGICAL APPROACH TO SKI CROSS

P YE ON G CHANG• Marielle Thompson passed the finish line of the ski cross course at Phoenix Snow Park on Monday morning, and she smiled. She smiled wide and she smiled long.

For Thompson, the 25- year- old gold medallist from Sochi, that run, a turn down the Phoenix track with no company but herself, was her first attempt at any kind of a serious run since October, when she ruptured both the ACL and MCL ligaments in her right knee in a training accident.

The initial thought was that her season, including the Olympics, was over. But she has rehabbed aggressively, and despite not competing at all on the World Cup circuit, the ski cross coaches named her to the team. That probably wasn’t such a tough call: if the defending champion thinks she can give it a go, you probably let her try.

But no one knew how the knee would respond under race conditions. Monday morning provided the first evidence.

“I think you guys could probably tell I was stoked,” the Whistler, B.C., skier said. “I couldn’t take the smile off my face, from the bottom, all the way up the lift. It was nice just to get back out there and put down a couple of solid runs.”

Thompson isn’t the only member of the Canadian team to have injury problems, although he rs are certainly the most recent. Kelsey Serwa, who won the silver medal in Sochi, hurt her knee in a training accident in December 2016. When Alpine Canada announced the following January that she would miss the remainder of that World Cup season, the release included this quote from Serwa, describing what happened when she landed hard after a jump: “The impact took a chunk off my lateral femoral condyle, which basically means there was a divot in the cartilage on a bone in my knee.” I mean, ouch. Serwa, the 28- year- old from Kelowna, B.C., said despite missing all that time last season, she feels, “surprisingly well.”

Anyone who has ever witnessed a ski cross race can appreciate the certain lunacy required to even attempt it, let alone try it with a surgically repaired knee. The sport has high speeds and big jumps and propensity for collisions and wipeouts. The heats also run with as many as six skiers on the course at the same time.

It looks like utter chaos to a casual observer, though the athletes insist that everything is under control. Well, semi-control.

“I think that’s what the draw is, too,” Serwa says. “There is that fine line, you know, it’s chaos and ( also) total focus. We’re used to this kind of stuff.”

Serwa glances over at the 22-foot halfpipe that is adjacent to the ski- cross course. “I would never go and hit a halfpipe. I think that’s crazy.”