Sharpe, Karker give Canada two more medals

BEIJING Silver and bronze: Put that in your halfpipe and smoke it.

Cassie Sharpe and Rachel Karker mounted the podium for Canada on Friday morning in the freeski halfpipe, lifting Canada’s medal tally to 22.

But Eileen Gu, the Chinese girl from California, was untouchable, collecting her second gold and third medal of the Games.

Sharpe, the defending champion from Vancouver Island, was in woo-woo ecstasy after her first run, laying down a score of 89 to be the interim leader.

Right 900 and left 900 on the top, switch 360, signature 1080 at the bottom, with a tail grab back to switch. Tons of amplitude, technical exactitude and flair — all the things judges want to see in a progression of the sport.

“Oh, my God! What a rush!” she shrieked.

This was the Sharpe of close to 2018 eminence, as if she had never shredded the ligaments in her knee and fractured her femur a year ago. She only returned to competition in late 2021.

Forget the sport’s jargon, just admire the guts and the grandiosity of the skill, the height achieved on the tricks, the voguing in the air, the assured landings. And always the risk, seen in the crash-out sprawls among the men’s field the day before.

Karker, the 24-year-old from Calgary who hasn’t missed a World

Cup podium since 2019, clicked the deck on her opening trick of the first run but corrected, concluding with a switch 540, taking off backward, reaching down for a tail grab, and earned a score of 87.75, which put her into second behind Sharpe. But Gu scored 93.25. Sharpe went for it on the second run, chasing Gu, the 2021 world champion. Zigging and zagging on the walls, spinning and vaulting, a four-metre high trick at the bottom, locking in the grab.

The 29-year-old was expected to win in Pyeongchang and counted out by many here. She got a 90 for the second run.

Karker was flawless at the top of her second run, an inverted flare, back-to-back 900s, switch 540 at the bottom. She scored 82.25. The two Canadians had posted two strong runs.

But Gu … 95.25.

In the third run on a breezy bright blue morning — one more factor to deal with at Genting Snow Park — Sharpe pulled out all the tricks, clean rotations on back-to-backs, upside-down on the axis, but she had an awkward landing. She still scored 90.75.

Karker, the only woman left who could challenge Gu for gold, went as big as she could at the top, back-toback 900s, but couldn’t get a 1080 on the bottom and instead repeated a trick from the top and the judges don’t like that.

Her score: 38.00.

And Gu?

A stylin’ lap of honour — just for fun.