Canadian skiers Cassie Sharpe and Rachael Karker won the silver and bronze medals in the women’s freeski halfpipe final at the Beijing Olympics on Friday.
Sharpe — the reigning gold medal champion from the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang — leapt into medal contention right away with her first run, and improved with her second and third runs to secure the silver.
Sharpe’s silver win came just over a year after suffering a serious injury at the Winter X-Games. The 29-year-old from Calgary broke her femur and tore the ligaments in her left knee in a crash in January 2021.
Reconstructive surgery followed by nine months of rehab meant Sharpe only had four months to prepare for Beijing.
“Exactly a year ago I had reconstructive ACL knee surgery in which they fractured my femur,” she said.
“It was just a crazy experience to go through that and the first three, four months after surgery, I didn’t know if I would make it here. Being able to flip it around and get on snow just under four months ago and make it to the Games and get a podium, I’m extremely proud and pretty satisfied with my performance.”
Karker also held on to the bronze position throughout the final, where the best score across three runs determined the final rankings.
Neither of them could catch China’s Ailing Eileen Gu, however, who won her second gold of the 2022 Winter Games after winning the freeski big air final last week. She also won a silver in the freeski slopestyle on Tuesday.
Fellow Canadian Amy Fraser finished eighth overall in the halfpipe.
Canada has now won 22 medals — four gold, six silver and 12 bronze — the third highest haul at the Beijing Olympics.
— with files from The Canadian Press.
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