There's definitely not a lack of excitement (or drama) to start off this weekend, whether you're talking about downtown Ottawa or the figure skating venue in Beijing.
But for our purposes, let's focus on the positives—especially another medal coming home to the Sea to Sky!
The podium for the women's halfpipe skiing event last night turned into a Canadian sandwich (with gold medallist Eileen Gu of China in the middle) as Squamish's Cassie Sharpe described it. Sharpe, originally from Comox, went massive and put down three solid runs—which included a pair of 1080s on either side of the pipe—to follow up her gold medal win in 2018 with a silver medal this time around. Less than a year after tearing her ACL at the X Games and receiving major reconstructive surgery to repair it, NBD. Meanwhile, teammate and training partner Rachael Karker, from Erin, Ont. stomped her runs to win bronze in her Olympic debut.
.@CassieSharpe lays it down in the women’s ski halfpipe at #Beijing2022 to win silver 🥈
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) February 18, 2022
This comes just two months after returning to competition following major knee surgery 🤯
Check it out on @CBCOlympics ⤵️
pic.twitter.com/l3mpAToxmI
If standing on an Olympic podium together isn't friendship goals, I don't know what is.
Rachael Karker joins her teammate @CassieSharpe on the podium at #Beijing2022 🥉
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) February 18, 2022
Check out their special moment after Karker’s final run 🤗❤️
🎥: @CBCOlympics
pic.twitter.com/t9LKxLifIB
Finger's crossed Canada's luck in the halfpipe keeps up for the men's event tonight, scheduled to get going at 5:30 p.m. PST. Locals will be cheering on three Canadian skiers slated to drop in, including Whistler's Simon d'Artois. He's the top-ranked Canadian heading into the event after finishing qualifiers in fifth place. Not far behind him are teammates Noah Bowman in seventh and Brendan Mackay in eighth.
Canada also picked up another couple of medals yesterday, including a silver for speed skater Laurent Dubreuil in the men's 1000 metre event and a bronze for curlers Brad Gushue and his team, who beat the Americans to earn their spot on the podium.
In the men's ski cross event Thursday night, 2018 Olympic champion Brady Leman was the highest-ranked Canadian. He placed sixth overall, after crossing the finish line second in the small final.
Canadians will also be back in action on the sliding track tonight, with the four-man bobsleigh event kicking off its first two of four runs at 5:30 p.m. PST. The two-woman bobsleds will return to the track for its third and fourth runs starting at 4 a.m. PST.
With just one day left of the Olympics, Canada is sitting 11th in the overall standings with a total of 24 medals: four gold, seven silver and 13 bronze. There's been highs and lows for sure, but watching locals athletes do what they do best on the world's biggest stage is always something special.
