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Local athlete results roundup

Athletes from Whistler and Pemberton are gaining momentum with the Olympics right around the corner
Harrison Brooks
Harrison Brooks
Sports-Brenden-Kelly-Moguls-022521
Pemberton’s Brenden Kelly and other local athletes have been picking up momentum with the Olympics right around the corner.Photo by Steven Kornreich/U.S. Ski Team

After a short break for Christmas, Whistler’s athletes were back on their respective competition circuits over the last couple weeks.

Leading the pack was Simon d’Artois, who managed to secure a bronze medal at the Freeski Halfpipe World Cup in Calgary on Dec. 30. D’Artois finished behind Calgary native Brendan Mackay—who won back-to-back golds at the event—and American Alex Ferreira.

On the women’s side, North Vancouver’s Cassie Sharpe had a seventh- and fourth-place finish over the three-day event.

Meanwhile, a snowboarding slopestyle World Cup also took place in Calgary from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1, which saw Mark McMorris narrowly miss the podium, finishing fourth, and a 25th-place finish for 18-year-old Whistlerite Finn Finestone, who is in his first season with the Canadian National Team.

About a week later, on Jan. 8 at Mammoth Mountain, Calif., Whistler local Darcy Sharpe took home a fourth-place finish in men’s slopestyle at the U.S. Grand Prix of Snowboard and Freeski.

The next day the skiers took centre stage. While it wasn’t a podium finish, Whistler resident Teal Harle skied to his best result of the year, cracking the top 15 in men’s freeski slopestyle with a 14th-place finish.

Pemberton’s Brenden Kelly also picked up his two best mogul finishes of the year with 10th- and 13th-place finishes at the World Cup stop in Mont-Tremblant, Que. At the same event, Quebec’s Mikael Kingsbury continued his dominance this season, picking up another two gold medals, marking the 69th and 70th World Cup victories in his career.

Over in the world of luge, Pemberton’s Trinity Ellis slid to a top-15 finish at the World Cup stop in Winterberg, Germany on Jan. 2.  While that was the high mark for Sea to Sky lugers at the last two World Cups, the Nationscup has been more friendly to the local sliders.

In the Nationscup in Winterberg, Reid Watts was able to secure sixth place on the men’s side while Ellis secured eighth on the women’s side.

For those looking to keep tabs on all the local athletes, some upcoming events include the Ski-Cross World Cup in Nakiska Jan. 13 to 15, aerial and mogul World Cup in Deer Valley, Utah Jan. 12 to 14, Slopestyle World Cup in Laax, Switzerland Jan. 13 to 16, and the luge World Cup in Oberhof, Germany on Jan. 15 and 16.