(Photo : FIS Freestyle)
(Photo : FIS Freestyle)

Cassie Sharpe wins silver at first stop of World Cup circuit

The first stop of the ski halfpipe World Cup got underway Friday in Copper Mountain, Colorado. Olympic champion Cassie Sharpe started her season with a silver medal win for Team Canada.

In early qualifying stages of the competition, Sharpe performed strongly as she received 93.75 points in her second qualification run. As the favourite to win the halfpipe event in freestyle skiing, her three rounds of finals did not go as planned.

Since the final ranking takes into account the best of three runs, during her third and final run Sharpe had to beat 93.00 points from Kelly Sildaru of Estonia. After delivering her best run, the crowd and skiers seemed to be in favour of Sharpe. However, the judges awarded her 90.50 points to win silver.

PyeongChang 2018 bronze medallist, Brita Sigourney of the United States completed the podium with bronze. Sharpe wasn’t the only Team Canada athlete in action at Copper Mountain, Rachael Karker just missed the podium in fourth place.

The circuit will head to Secret Garden, China for the next halfpipe World Cup on December 20th.