Cypress Olympic Venue: On the Podium

I just wrapped up my 5th World Cup Race of the year at Cypress , BC.  I was having a lot of fun training on the Olympic course all week and qualified 6th on Thursday.  Friday was race day and my friends and family showed up to support me - it was so nice to have them all there!  

I won the first heat by a fair amount.  In the second heat I was hot on Meryll’s tails and actually had to push her forward to prevent running over her.  This sent me back a bit and the other two girls passed me.  I made a pass into one of the big banked turns after a long flat section with two doubles on it.  I was gaining on the other girl and thought I had to pass her to advance to the semi final. I pointed it right off the last hip jump instead of scrubbing speed for direction so I could make the pass but I overshot that tranny and couldn't hold it.  I went down. I got up and skied down assuming that I had not advanced to the semi-finals.  Turns out, Clara had already been disqualified for something that had happened up to when I attempted to pass her so I was still in the race!

In the semi-final I had a good start and skied well down the entire course finishing first.  I had made it to the FINALS!!!

I came out of the gate first in the final, but got tangled up with Ophelie, opening the door for Aleisha to slide out front.  Ophelie and I battled it out down the whole course until she got a little wild on one of the lower features and crashed hard.  I made a good move off it and managed to get my skis back on the snow, just as I saw her flying up beside me, stilling gaining vert, partway through a backflip. I finished the race in 2nd!  Pretty exciting to get the SILVER MEDAL on the Olympic Course!!!

As I was standing on the podium and they were playing our National Anthem, it hit me...I have a really good shot at winning and Olympic Medal.

Canadians took 5 out of the 6 medals at the Cypress Skicross World Cup.  It was a pretty amazing day for the whole team!