PEAK PERFORMERS
Canada leads the world in the high-speed, high-risk sport of ski cross. Here’s why. By Kerry Gillespie
CHRIS DEL BOSCO
The 34-year-old has been in the sport longer than anyone else on the Canadian team, and he’s best known as the guy who refused to settle. The Montreal skier was in third position at the Vancouver Olympics when he went for a risky pass on a jump, crashing out of the medals entirely. Last season, he found himself closer to where he likes to be, ranked second overall with four golds and two more podium finishes on the World Cup circuit plus X Games bronze.
MARIELLE THOMPSON
She’s only 24 years old, but the Whistler, B.C., skier has already amassed a huge trophy collection, which includes an Olympic gold medal in ski cross from the 2014 Sochi Games and two crystal globes emblematic of World Cup season titles. She was sidelined with a knee injury in 2015, but skied her way back to the No. 2 ranking last season with four World Cup wins, two more podiums and a silver medal at the X Games.
KEVIN DRURY
Two years ago, he stopped being the alpine skier who liked to play around in the terrain park after races and made the switch to ski cross. Last season, his first on the World Cup circuit, was a good first step. The 28-year-old Toronto skier earned three top-10 finishes. His best result was at the test event for the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where he made the final four for the first time and missed the podium by less than the length of a ski boot.
GEORGIA SIMMERLING
The 27-year-old from Vancouver won a bronze medal in team pursuit cycling at the Summer Olympics in Rio, making Canadian history as the first athlete to compete in three Olympics in three different events. She was an alpine skier in Vancouver, a ski-cross racer in Sochi and a track cyclist in Rio. Now, she’s back to snow and looking to climb the rankings again. In the 2014-15 season, her last on the ski-cross circuit, she was ranked second.
BRADY LEMAN
The 30-year-old from Calgary hasn’t had the best Olympic luck. In the sport’s debut in Vancouver he was named to the team two days before competition, after a teammate’s injury, only to crash in training the next day — bending the metal rod in his leg. In Sochi, he missed the podium in fourth place behind three French skiers. But last season he won gold at the X Games and wound up third overall on the World Cup circuit with five podiums.
KELSEY SERWA
The 27-year-old from Kelowna came back from a series of injuries to win a silver medal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, just behind Thompson. She took the next two seasons off — to let her body recover and finish her undergraduate degree in human kinetics — then returned to competition last season. While there were some ups and downs, she won a silver medal at a test event for the 2018 Olympics and gold at the X Games.