Happy Valentine's Day, pals! 💕 Alternatively, happy Day 11 of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
Whichever occasion you're celebrating today, there's lots to love about what went down across the pond over the weekend—especially at the Big Air Shougang venue, where Team Canada's snowboarders threw their contest bibs back on for qualifiers.
In the men's event, three Canadians are heading into finals after a three-run qualifying round: slopestyle gold medallist Max Parrot, who's heading into finals ranked first, while Mark McMorris in eighth, Darcy Sharpe sneaking in just under the cutoff in 12th place. It was do-or-die for Whistler's Sharpe after falling on his first run, but he was able to pull it together (under the kind of pressure I've never and will never experience, FWIW) with a switch backside 1620, followed by a stomped backside triple 1440.
Defending Olympic big air gold medallist, Canadian Sebastien Toutant, was knocked out of the competition after falling on two runs (while he was competing on a bruised heel). His last crash was a scary one that warranted some medical attention at the bottom of the out-run, but Toutant was fortunately able to stand up and walk away.
Finals start at 9 p.m. Monday (PST), with Sharpe dropping in first and Parrot slated to jump last.
The women's big air qualifiers also took place yesterday, with—surprise, surprise—New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott seeded first. Canada's Laurie Blouin, the reigning world champ, qualified in fourth, while Whistler local Jasmine Baird also advanced to finals after ranking 10th.
Both Canadians landed all three of their jumps to qualify. For Blouin, it was a cab double under-flip (while listening to Shania Twain 👑), a frontside 720 tail grab, and a front 1080 double to round things out. Baird earned her spot with the same cab double under-flip as Blouin, followed by a backside 720. On her third jump, she attempted a re-do of her first trick, but earned the same score. It will be the first-time Olympian Baird's first time on a finals start list, after failing to advance to finals in last week's slopestyle event.
Whistler-based snowboarding legend and two-time Olympic gold medallist Jamie Anderson, however, didn't earn a spot in finals this time around. After effectively knocking herself out of finals contention with falls on her first two runs, she threw down a perfect front 1080 double cork to give herself a fighting chance, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. The third Canadian competing in qualifiers, Brooke Voigt, also saw her Olympics come to an end after ranking 21st.
Catch both Baird and Blouin in the women's big air snowboarding finals starting at 5:40 p.m. today.
There was also excitement on the sliding track this weekend as the bobsleigh events got underway. In the first-ever Olympic women's monobob race, former-Team-Canada-turned-Team-USA pilot Kaillie Humphries added another gold medal to her collection, while Canadian Christine de Bruin earned the bronze.
In the two-man bobsleigh event, the third of four runs are scheduled to start at 4:15 a.m. Tuesday, with fourth runs scheduled for 5:50 a.m. PST. Heading into the last two runs, Canadians Chris Spring and Mike Evelyn are ranked eighth, followed by Justin Kripps and Cameron Stones in 10th and Taylor Austin and Daniel Sunderland in 20th.
Canada also posted a strong result in the women's skeleton event, with Mirela Rahneva sitting close to the podium in fifth place after all four runs.
Canada's women's hockey team had a great weekend on the ice as well, winning 10-3 in the semifinal game against Switzerland Sunday night. That means Team Canada will officially face off—once again—against the Americans. The cross-border rivals have met in five of the six gold-medal games since women's hockey became an Olympic sport and are typically neck-in-neck, so fingers crossed Canada can pull of a repeat of their win against the United States earlier in the tournament.
The weekend might be over, but the action is continuing into Monday—and you might want to get a few screens going for this one: In addition to the above-mentioned big air finals, women's downhill skiing, featuring Canadians Marie-Michèle Gagnon and Roni Remme, begins at 7 p.m.,
Women's slopestyle skiing finals are also getting underway at 5:30 p.m. Monday, with Quebec City's Olivia Asselin the only Canadian on the start list. She qualified in 11th place, while teammate Megan Oldham ranked 13th in qualifiers—just one spot outside the cutoff for finals.
Men's slopestyle skiing qualifiers also kick off at 8:30 p.m., featuring Canadians Edouard Therriault, Evan McEachran, Max Moffatt and Whistler local Teal Harle, ahead of finals scheduled for tomorrow.
As for Canada's medal count, we're currently sitting in 14th place overall with 15 medals (one gold, four silver and 10 bronze).
I'll leave you today with this absolutely heartwarming footage of local luge athlete Natalie Corless' reunion with her pup after returning home from her Olympic debut. It's probably the best thing you'll see all day. (Aside from the big air tricks, of course.)
