Canadian women grab silver and gold to continue Sochi ski cross success

Canadian women continued their hot streak at the Sochi Olympics. And so did Canada's freestyle skiers.

Only hours after Canada's female curlers and hockey players produced gold, freestyle skiers Marielle Thompson of Whistler, B.C., won gold in ski cross with Kelsey Serwa of Kelowna, B.C., claiming silver.

The medals were the eighth and ninth collected in freestyle skiing, accounting for almost half of Canada's 22 so far. Serwa called the one-two finish "miraculous."

Thompson, the World Cup points leader and favourite heading into the Olympics, was in control throughout a competition that at times looked out of control. There were several crashes with two competitors being taken off the course on stretchers.

But Thompson wasn't fazed by those accidents or anything else that happened on this foggy day. The 21-year-old breezed through the preliminaries, jumping into an early lead and staying well ahead of any potential trouble.

She used that battle plan in the final, with Serwa following suit.

The two Canadians used their explosive starts to grab the lead early and never looked back. It was basically a two-woman race, although there was some teamwork involved.

Thompson said she gave her teammate a little extra room on the first turn.

“We definitely try to help each other," she said. "I’m not going to cut her off and that’s how we went all the way down.”

Ophelie David of France didn't finish the final, crashing out early.

There was nothing really surprising about the final results considering the way Thompson and Serwa have skied this year. Serwa, 24, is a former world and X-Games champion while Thompson has been at or near the top since breaking into the world circuit at the age of 17.

The gold-silver performance by Canadians was a common theme in freestyle skiing here. Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe finished first and second in women's moguls on Feb. 8 and two days later Alex Bilodeau won the gold medal in the men's event with teammate Mikael Kingsbury taking the silver.

The nine medals gave Canada the overall freestyle competition at Sochi, beating out the Americans by two.

Georgia Simmerling of West Vancouver, B.C., was eighth in the seeding run and won her opening heat, but crashed in the quarterfinals and left the course in obvious discomfort.