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Pique's 2022 Winter Olympic Blog: Feb. 17

Whistler's Marielle Thompson is officially a two-time Olympic medallist 🔥
Megan Lalonde
Megan Lalonde
Marielle-Thompson
Team Canada’s Marielle Thompson, from Whistler, B.C., places second in the women’s ski cross event during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on Thursday, February 17, 2022. Photo by Darren Calabrese/COC

Wednesday nights (or Thursdays, if we're going by Beijing time) are proving to be exceptionally lucky for Team Canada, after its medal count grew by two yesterday. 

Best part? One of those medal is coming home to the Sea to Sky, courtesy of Whistler local Marielle Thompson's silver medal win in the women's ski cross event. 

Seeing Thompson cross the finish line second was an exciting end to a race that I can only assume had most viewers barely hanging on to the edge of their seats. Thompson was biding her time in last place for the first half of the four-woman race, but as CBC analyst (and 2018 Olympic ski cross gold medallist) Kelsey Serwa predicted, "the drafting passing queen" came back around the inside near the end of the race to take second position and earn herself a spot on the podium for the second time. 


Any Olympic medal is obviously a massive accomplishment, but the feat is even more impressive when you look at the hurdles Thompson's had to overcome since winning gold in Sochi eight years ago. The ski cross event at the PyeongChang Games in 2018 was her first race back after debilitating ACL and MCL knee injuries (she finished 17th), while these Olympics come less than a year after she underwent knee surgery. 

What. a. boss. 

 

Thompson's silver also means that a Canadian—and technically, a Whistler resident—has stood on the women's ski cross podium at every Olympics since the event made its debut in Vancouver in 2010. 

If that wasn't proof enough of Canada's dominance on the ski cross circuit, half of the eight-skier semifinal field at these Games were wearing maple leafs. Canadians Brittany Phelan, Courtney Hoffos, and Hannah Schmidt all competed in the small final (after Phelan narrowly missed out on the race for a medal in a photo-finish semifinal), following each other over the finish line to place fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.

The other highlight, on the off-chance you missed it, was Canada beating the Americans to win women's hockey GOLD! Team Canada returned to its rightful place on top of the podium after losing to the the U.S. in the last Olympic gold medal game in 2018. Canada won Wednesday night's matchup 3-2 to earn the gold—coincidentally the exact same score tallied during the 2018 final, just flipped. 

It was a fairly close game as per usual, especially after the United States was given a power play with just 1:25 left on the clock and 3-1 posted on the scoreboard, in favour of Canada. With her team's net empty, American Amanda Kessel scored to make it a 3-2 game with just 13.5 seconds remaining, but Canada held on. 

It's the fifth time Canada has won Olympic gold in women's hockey. But seriously, how could they not win, with a warm up this effective?

In other good news, all six (!) Canadian halfpipe skiers are heading to the finals after successfully throwing down during qualifiers yesterday to make the cut. PyeongChang Olympic champion Cassie Sharpe will be looking to defend her gold medal when finals start at 5:30 p.m. PST, with teammates Rachael Karker (who qualified in second place!) and Amy Fraser also slated to compete. 

The men's final is scheduled for Friday evening B.C. time, when Brendan Mackay, Noah Bowman and Whistler's Simon d’Artois will all be dropping in. 

If d'Artois' tricks are even half as entertaining as his TikTok skills, I think we're all in for a fun event.