Weekend Roundup: First crystal globe for Karker while Kingsbury adds to his historic haul
There was lots of action in the winter sports world this weekend, while a few summer sport stars also grabbed some of the spotlight.
Among the highlights: a couple of Canadians laid claim to crystal globes as the overall World Cup champions of their freestyle skiing disciplines and the Canadian short track speed skating team picked up where they left off as their World Cup season resumed.
Here’s a look at what you may have missed:
Freestyle Skiing: Kingsbury & Thénault dynamite in Deer Valley
Mikaël Kingsbury reigned over Deer Valley with a pair of podium performances. He started with a silver medal in moguls on Thursday night, which secured him the crystal globe in that event for the second straight season.
READ: Consistent Kingsbury captures silver at the moguls mecca in Deer Valley
He followed up on Saturday night with a victory in the dual moguls. His 78th career World Cup win put him back into top spot in the overall World Cup standings in that event.
READ: Kingsbury wins dual moguls for 78th World Cup victory while Thénault continues to shine
Kingsbury’s dominance is not going unnoticed outside of Canada. Take a look at how the American broadcast put his accomplishment in perspective:
Deer Valley also hosted aerials competition in which Marion Thénault took home silver for her third medal of the World Cup season. She sits second in the overall standings.
Elsewhere in Deer Valley, Maia Schwinghammer earned the best result of her career when she placed fourth in women’s moguls. Elliot Vaillancourt also had a personal best weekend with his fifth-place finish in moguls and sixth-place finish in dual moguls.
Freestyle Skiing & Snowboard: Mammoth (Mountain) of a weekend for Team Canada
Rachael Karker clinched her first career crystal globe in women’s ski halfpipe after she won bronze at Mammoth Mountain on Friday. It was her 12th straight podium in World Cup competition, a streak that dates back to 2019.
Sitting right behind Karker in second place in the overall halfpipe standings is Amy Fraser, who placed fourth on Friday. Dillan Glennie also made it to the final, finishing in sixth place.
Canada also had a medallist in men’s ski halfpipe as Brendan Mackay grabbed the silver medal, missing out on the victory by one point. After being on the podium in three of four events this season, Mackay finished second in the overall World Cup standings. Dylan Marineau placed fifth at Mammoth Mountain for his career-best World Cup result.
Three Canadian men finished in the top-eight in the men’s ski slopestyle final. Noah Porter MacLennan was fifth, one spot ahead of Max Moffatt. Mark Hendrickson came in eighth. Megan Oldham was the only Canadian to advance to the women’s ski slopestyle final, placing eighth.
In women’s snowboard halfpipe, Brooke D’Hondt finished fifth for her career-best World Cup result. Elizabeth Hosking placed eighth in that final.
Short Track Speed Skating: Three medal weekend in Dresden ⛸
The ISU World Cup resumed in Dresden, Germany for the penultimate competition of the season circuit.
Courtney Sarault continued her incredible campaign. The 22-year-old won bronze in the 1500m on Saturday, her third medal of the season in that distance. Teammate Kim Boutin finished fourth in that final. On Sunday, together with Rikki Doak and Renee Marie Steenge, they won silver in the women’s 3000m relay.
It was also on Saturday that Félix Roussel won bronze in the men’s 1000m for his first individual World Cup medal. It came in just his fifth World Cup competition, having made his debut on the circuit in the fall.
READ: Short track: Three medal weekend for Team Canada skaters
He came close to another podium with the men’s 5000m relay team that was in the medal mix until a fall after an exchange with just five laps to go. There were also fourth-place finishes in the mixed relay and by Steven Dubois in the men’s 500m.
Ski Jumping: Strate and Loutitt continue to soar
A week after her first World Cup medal, Abigail Strate came close to another as she finished fourth in the large hill event in Willingen, Germany on Sunday. She had been sitting in third after the first round of jumping, but couldn’t hold that position after her second jump.
Meanwhile, her history-making teammate Alexandria Loutitt was in Whistler for the FIS Junior World Championships. There she won the gold medal by almost 15 points, improving on the bronze she won last year.
She is Canada’s first ever junior world champion in women’s ski jumping. Only two Canadian men have won world junior titles: Horst Bulau in 1979 and Steve Collins in 1980. Loutitt will now rejoin Strate on the World Cup circuit.
Bobsleigh: Top-8 at the worlds for Appiah and Haughey
Cynthia Appiah and brakewoman Niamh Haughey broke into the top-eight of two-woman bobsleigh at the IBSF World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Skateboarding: Decenzo in the semifinals at world championships
Ryan Decenzo was the top Canadian at the World Skate Street World Championships in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. He finished 11th overall, advancing as far as the semifinal before the cut was made for the eight-man final. With that result, he sits ninth in the Olympic qualification rankings for Paris 2024.
Tennis: Andreescu reaches semifinal before bowing out with injury
Bianca Andreescu had her run at the Thailand Open stopped due a shoulder injury in her semifinal match. Andreescu dropped the opening set 7-5 to Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko and then retired in the second set. By advancing as far as she did, Andreescu has broken back into the top-40 in the WTA singles rankings and sits at number 37.
Judo: Two Grand Slam podiums in Paris
Five Canadians competed in medal bouts at the Judo Grand Slam in Paris. Jessica Klimkait came away with the silver medal in the women’s 57kg event. She lost the final to France’s Priscilla Gneto after taking her third shido (penalty) of the bout in golden score time. François Gauthier-Drapeau won his 81kg bronze medal bout over Turkey’s Vedat Albaryrak when he scored an ippon about two minutes in.
Three other Canadians were not so successful in their bronze medal bouts and ended up tied for fifth in their events: Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (women’s 63kg), Arthur Margelidon (men’s 73kg), and Shady El Nahas (men’s 100kg).
Beach Volleyball: Melissa and Brandie debut in Doha
In their first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event as a team, Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson made it to the quarterfinals of the Elite 16 tournament in Doha, Qatar. They dropped their quarterfinal match 2-0 to Stam and Schoon of the Netherlands, ranked third in the world.
Wrestling: Pair of bronze medals in Zagreb
Two Canadian women reached the podium at the Zagreb Open, a UWW Ranking Series event. Samantha Stewart claimed bronze in the women’s 53kg event after defeating teammate Karla Godinez Gonzalez 6-1. Stewart had lost her semifinal to get into that bronze medall match, while Godinez Gonzalez had advanced through the repechage.
Justina Di Stasio came through the repechage successfully to set up a bronze medal match with Chia’s Wang Juan, which the Canadian won 6-3.
