CALGARY – The Canadian ski cross team’s last focus before the Winter Olympics is on snow at home.
The World Cup races on Friday and Saturday at Nakiska Resort, west of Calgary, feature a host team, mostly on the female side, with five Canadians in the world’s top 10.
The results of Nakiska therefore have a weight in which the athletes will be nominated to the Olympic team for the opening of the Winter Games in Beijing in February. 4.
“It’s certain that the competition between the two is fierce,” said Zoe Chore of Cranbrook, British Columbia. “We compete against each other, but we also use them to get to the next level.
“I think it really helps us to prepare for the pressure that we will have at the Olympics for the people who will get there.”
Four men and four women ran for Canada, but the number of ski cross still depends on the number of Canadian athletes who qualified in other acrobatic disciplines.
Britt Phelan, Mont-Tremblant, Qc., The Olympic champion Marielle Thompson of Whistler, C.-B., Hannah Schmidt of Ottawa, Courtney Hoffos of Invermere, C.-B., and Tiana Gairns of Prince George, C.-B., are vying for Olympic spots, while Chore and India Sherrett of Cranbrook are also under from the podium.
Brady Leman from Calgary, Olympic champion, Reece Howden from Cultus Lake, British Columbia, and Kevin Drury from Toronto are the favorites for the places in Beijing.
Jared Schmidt from Ottawa and Kristofer Mahler from Canmore, Alb., Carson Cook of Edmonton and Chris del Bosco of Montreal are trying to increase their chances in Alberta.
The timed qualifying races are Thursday. Those who advance make sudden passed away rounds to determine the winners on Friday and Saturday.
The Canadiens will not get to two World Cups in Idre Fall, Sweden, next week because of the risk of the recent times virus on the way.
Everyone who travels to Beijing has to produce two negative tests before departure to board a plane, so avoiding the virus has made the leap over the competition. The Russian ski cross team did not travel to Canada.
“We don’t see the next World Cup before the Olympics in Sweden, which really sucks, but that’s it,” said Howden, the reigning World Men’s Championship champion.
“This will probably be a big burden on our shoulders in terms of eliminating the possibility to pick it up during the trip.
“Basically, after Nakiska, we will be locked up, hanging. We will be able to train here in Nakiska and then try to understand a gym situation to stay away from the public.”
Phelan, Olympic silver medalist, almost did not manage to get to Nakiska. The 30-year-old had recent times in December and a negative last-minute test allowed her to compete.
She finished second at the last World Cup in Nakiska in January, before suffering a knee injury at the end of the season the following month.
“Certainly a very long recovery of the knee. Almost two years,” Phelan said. “This race two years ago was really what I would repeat in my head. It was my last very good race before I got injured.”
While Nakiska is open for public skiing, the observation areas of the race are closed and the course is fenced to create a buffer zone between the runners and the public.
As a Canadian team sent to Beijing, it will be mute.
“My parents and a lot of family members would come, but when the new protocols came out, they just called him and decided to watch him on TV, since they didn’t have much access to us as athletes,” Thompson said.
The race forecasts are for temperatures below – 1 C and a mixture of sun and clouds.
This report from the Canadian press was first published in January. 13.