Leman loses gold by tip of ski glove
KANANASKIS COUNTRY, ALTA. — Brady Leman’s postrace media scrum opened Saturday with the most curious of questions.
“What the hell?” a reporter asked in the aftermath of a crazy scene at the finish line of the World Cup men’s ski cross final at the Nakiska Ski Resort.
Leman is No. 2 in a sport that resembles motocross on skis. He led every race from start to finish in Saturday’s knockout rounds on the mountain he loved as a kid growing up in nearby Calgary.
But the 29-year-old met with a cruel fate at the finish line of the Big Final. He watched gold — and silver — slip away as Jean Frederic Chapuis, of France, and Armin Niederer, of Switzerland, muscled to the front at the last possible second. A screen capture of the broadcast shows Leman losing by the tip of a ski glove.
“When you’ve got the best guys in the world behind you, there’s no room for mistakes, unfortunately,” Leman muttered, trying to digest the gold that wasn’t. “I made a very small bobble on the last double there.”
The numbers suggest Leman will win his first gold one of these weekends. But where it matters most, at home, teammate Marielle Thompson was the one to bask in the glory at the only Canadian stop on the tour.
Thompson, a 23-year-old from Whistler and reigning Olympic champion, refused to let Sweden’s Anna Holmlund pass her when it counted most.
This is Thompson’s third win of the season and third career victory at Nakiska. Andrea Limbacher of Austria finished third, and Kelsey Serwa, of Kelowna, came sixth.
“The course really fits my style,” Thompson said.