OLYMPIC MEDALLISTS LEMAN, PHELAN, SERWA, & THOMPSON LEAD CANADIAN SKI CROSS TEAM INTO WORLD CHAMPS
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
GEPA
Calgary, Alta. (Jan. 28, 2019) – Alpine Canada has named eight athletes – four men and four women – to its ski cross team competing at the 2019 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in Park City, Utah, Feb. 1-2.
Among the highly-decorated team are 2018 Olympic ski cross champions Brady Leman (Calgary/Calgary Alpine Racing Club) and Kelsey Serwa (Kelowna, B.C./Big White Ski Club), as well as 2014 Olympic champ Marielle Thomson (Whistler, B.C./Whistler Mountain Ski Club).
Brittany Phelan (Mont-Tremblant, Que./Mont-Tremblant Ski Club), who finished second at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, Korea, has also been named to the team, as has Canadian veteran and 2011 World Champion Chris Del Bosco (Montreal and Vail, Col./Ski and Snowboard Club Vail). Rounding out the Canadian contingent are Toronto’s Kevin Drury, who placed fourth in PyeongChang last February, as well as World Championship rookies Mikayla Martin (Squamish, B.C./Whistler Mountain Ski Club) and Reece Howden (Cultus Lake, BC / Club Apex Ski Club).
“We have a nice mix of veterans and some of the up-and-coming talent on our team who have been making their mark on the World Cup circuit this year, and that’s an important mix as we head into a world championship in the first year of this latest Olympic quad, and build towards 2022,” said Stanley Hayer, ski cross Head Coach “We’re looking forward to hitting the snow at Solitude and giving Canadians another great day of racing to cheer about.”
Only Martin and Howden are staring down their first world championship racing; they have both been solid in World Cup racing this season, each earning two top-10 finishes in their first full seasons on the circuit.
Del Bosco and Serwa have shown they know how to win at Worlds; both were crowned champions on U.S. snow in 2011.
Training at Solitude begins on Wednesday, Jan. 30, with qualifications set for Friday, Feb. 1. Race action begins at 1 p.m. MT/3 p.m. ET on Saturday, Feb. 2, and will be live-streamed by CBC Sports, as well as featured on CBC Sports’ Road to the Olympic Games at 2 p.m. MT/4 p.m. ET.
