Ski cross champ posting better results
Marielle Thompson is having fun again and it paid off for the Whistler, B.C., skier Sunday as she earned the silver medal in women’s ski cross at the FIS world freestyle championships in Norway.
After winning the last three World Cups of the 2011-12 campaign to capture the Crystal Globe as season champion, the 20-year-old struggled at the start of this season with just one top-10 finish in the first seven races.
The pressure of being the reigning champion and being too focused on results instead of just skiing contributed to an uptight, stressed Thompson, who finally let that all wash away a few weeks back.
“Now, I’m enjoying myself on every run and having a blast,” Thompson, who was second at a World Cup in Sochi two weeks ago, said on a conference call.
“I was definitely really excited coming into this race. I had some good training in Germany (where she also won a couple of FIS junior races). The first couple of training runs here I wasn’t really showing it. I knew I had to step it up and get my skiing up to par. I did that and I definitely felt like I was back in my game and going fast again.”
Reigning world champion Kelsey Serwa of Kelowna tweaked her surgically repaired knee in a morning training run and sat out the race, which was won by Fanny Smith of Switzerland.
Serwa, who has wins this season at Sochi and Innichen, Italy, in a strong comeback year following ACL surgery, may skip the final two World Cups in Sweden and Spain.
“We might just call this season a good one and make sure she gets healed up,” said national team head coach Eric Archer. “We have to be thinking about her future and not trying to squeeze out a couple of more results.”
Reigning men’s world champion Chris Del Bosco, who lives in Montreal, got eliminated in the semifinal when a third-choice lane assignment led to a tough start on a tight course that offered few passing opportunities. He wound up sixth.
France’s Jean Frederic Chapuis and Bastien Midol went 1-2 with John Teller of the U.S. taking the bronze.
Canada finished the freestyle worlds with 10 medals, tying at the top of the table with the U.S., although Canada’s four gold and five silver easily trumped the Americans’ three gold and one silver.
Kaya Turski of Montreal and Dara Howell of Huntsville, Ont., went 1-2 in women’s slopestyle on Saturday. Turski, sitting eighth (14.2 points) after the first run of the two-run final on the challenging three-rail, four-jump course, nailed her second run for a score of 89.6. Howell scored 85.2.
“I just get in this mood where I’m saying to myself, ‘You know what, it’s not the end of the world if this doesn’t work out,’ and somehow that gives me the flow and I just go with it,” said Turski, a three-time X Games champion.
Turski was flawless on her newly added trick, an off-axis jump with one and a half rotations. It’s a trick she says she definitely needed to keep up with the rapid progression in a discipline that makes its Olympic debut at Sochi in 2014.
“It took me out of my comfort zone at first but all the hard work has paid off and now I can throw it out there when I need to, like today. And now I get to say I’m world champion out loud. It’s awesome.”
It was a terrific weekend around the world for Canadian winter sport athletes.
Here are the highlights:
Dominique Maltais of Quebec and Maelle Ricker of North Vancouver went 1-3 in a World Cup women’s snowboard cross at Arosa, Switzerland, on Saturday. On Sunday, Matt Morison of Burketon, Ont., was second in the men’s parallel giant slalom, with Caroline Calve of Aylmer, Que., taking third in the women’s parallel GS.
Canada won the gold medal Sunday in the men’s relay at the world short track speedskating championships in Debrechen, Hungary. The women were second in their event, while Charles Hamelin of SainteJulie, Que., earned bronze in the 1,000 metres and the overall.
Long track speedskater Christine Nesbitt won gold Saturday in the women’s 1,000 metres at the ISU World Cup Finals in Heerenveen, Netherlands. On Sunday, she was third in the 1,500 metres, with Kali Christ of Regina fourth. Ivanie Blondin of Ottawa was second in the women’s mass start.