One-two punch Canadians Kelsey Serwa, right, and Brittany Phelan take gold and silver in ski cross,
Kelsey Serwa, Brittany Phelan give Canada gold-silver repeat in ski cross
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— Even before she landed in South Korea, Kelsey Serwa knew she had what it took to win an Olympic medal.
She had done it before, winning silver at the 2014 Games behind her teammate Marielle Thompson.
The whole team knew they were riding fast skis again this week after the Canadians posted the top three times in the seeding runs. But in a sport where four skiers race head to head over a course of jumps, rollers and banked turns, nothing is ever certain.
Thompson, the top seed, and teammate India Sherret went down in crashes before Serwa even skied her first heat Fri- day.
But Serwa was never in trouble, and nothing would stop her from winning the gold in her third Olympics, as she led Brittany Phelan to another one-two Canadian finish.
“They put this music on that is this heartbeat — boom, boom — and we can hear that that up there, so I’m ‘OK, I’ve got mine, I got that, just close that all out and focus,’ ” said Serwa, a 28-year-old from Kelowna, B.C., recalling her last moments before the race.
“Everything today went perfect. For it to end up with an Olympic gold and my teammate and best bud to be silver is absolutely incredible.”
Serwa got out of the start gates fast, took the lead and never looked back in her heats all the way to the semifinals.
“To end up with gold and my best bud to be silver is absolutely incredible.” KELSEY SERWA
That’s where she met another teammate, Brittany Phelan, the 26year-old skier from Mont Tremblant, Que.
Serwa and Phelan both advanced to final of four skiers, assuring Canada at least one medal.
And, just like it was four years ago in Sochi, the Canadians took two: gold and silver.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” Phelan said. “I really hasn’t sunk in yet, it’s been such an amazing day and to finish second behind my best friend and someone who has really taught me everything, it couldn’t have gone better.”
The Canadians came into this race riding an incredible high. Brady Leman won gold in the men’s race earlier this week and Thompson posted the fastest time in seeding, followed by Serwa and Phelan.
Thompson actually made the impossible — coming back from knee surgery in just four months to win a medal — look possible right up until 10 seconds into her first heat.
“I’m not really sure what happened but someone’s skies landed on mine or I landed on someone else’s and I just fell,” the 25-year-old from Whistler, B.C. said, adding that her knee was fine. “I’m obviously disappointed with how the race went today, especially having won seeding yesterday, but the fact that I know I can ski fast is big coming back from this injury. I’m really proud to even be here and have raced.”
Head coach Stanley Hayer was always confident that Thompson was ready, both physically and mentally.
“There’s a lot of good athletes that, when they crash, it takes them weeks to hit that kind of feature again and she’s kind of like a (Chris Del Bosco) or a Brady (Leman), they crash and they go, ‘OK, I actually made a mistake’ and they go do it again. It doesn’t faze them and she’s one of them.”
That courage can go either way. Leman left here with Canada’s first men’s gold medal in ski cross and Del Bosco left on a stretcher bound for the hospital with four broken ribs, a fractured pelvis and a bruised lung.
For Thompson it turned out to be far less dramatic. She walked off the course without a medal.
It was Sherret, the 21-year-old from Cranbrook, B.C., who suffered the bad crash of the day. She lost her balance over a jump and crashed hard on the next knuckle. She was taken to hospital in stable condition.