Top 2014: On course for another 1-2 finish
This month Olympic.ca will be revisiting the top Canadian sports moments of 2014.
From the very start of the women’s ski cross competition at Sochi 2014, skiers Marielle Thompson and Kelsey Serwa were on another level.
Thompson, only 21 years-old at the time, rode into Sochi on a wave of confidence. She had taken home the previous two Crystal Globes, awarded to the top World Cup ski cross man and woman. Thompson was also leading the 2013-14 World Cup standings and won gold at the final World Cup stop before the Olympics in Val Thorens, France.
Her teammate Kelsey Serwa was also very comfortable at the top of the track in Sochi. Serwa, the 2011 ski cross World Champion and X Games gold medallist, took home gold from the Sochi test event in 2013, with Thompson trailing her for silver.
It was no surprise then that both skiers dominated in their respective paths to the ski cross final at Sochi 2014. Thompson won all of her qualifying races en route to the final, while Serwa won her first two races before finishing second to Swede Anna Holmlund in their semifinal.
When the starting gates went down in the final, it was Thompson and Serwa who pushed their way to the front of the four-skier field and they never looked back. Just past the halfway point of the race, French skier Ophelie David crashed to leave Thompson, Serwa, and Holmlund in the top three spots and that was exactly how it finished. Thompson powered her way through the finish line to capture the gold, with Serwa close behind her in the silver medal position.
The 1-2 finish was the third time at Sochi that Canada had taken gold and silver in the same event (along with the men’s and women’s moguls teams). It was also the fourth multiple podium for the Canadian team (Dara Howell taking gold and Kim Lamarre the bronze in women’s ski slopestyle was the other).
Thompson followed up her dominance at Sochi by winning gold at the final World Cup stop of the 2014 season, which secured her third straight Crystal Globe title.
