Being the defending Olympic champion, as freestyle skier Cassie Sharpe of Comox is after her crowning acnievement last year in the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, makes you queen of the half-pipe.
But the glow doesn’t last forever.
Yet the Islander proved herself a good sportsperson on Saturday in being shunted to the silver medal at the 2019 FIS world championships in Park City, Utah.
“Obviously, I’m a bit disappointed at having missed coming in first,” said the 26-year-old, who grew up skiing on Mount Washington.
“Kelly [gold-medallist Kelly Sildaru of Estonia] laid down a phenomenal final run. I’m happy for her.”
Sharpe appeared as if she was going to follow Olympic gold with world championship gold before Sildaru nailed her final run and edged Sharpe by just .60 of a point.
Brita Sigourney of the United States won the bronze medal with Rachael Karker of Guelph, Ont., fourth.
Olympic-champion Mikael Kingsbury of Canada, meanwhile, won his second gold medal of the FIS world freestyle championships late Saturday in Utah with victory in the dual moguls.
Sharpe’s silver-medal performance, headlines another big year for skiers and boarders who grew up on Mount Washington. Also from the Comox Valley at the 2019 FIS world championships in Utah are men’s freestyle skier Teal Harle of Campbell River and women’s freestyle cross-country snowboarder Carle Brenneman and rising men’s slopestyle and big-air snowboard performer Darcy Sharpe, who is Cassie’s brother.
That follows the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, in which gold-medallist Cassie Sharpe competed alongside fellow Mount Washington-produced Harle, Brenneman and former women’s slopestyle world champion Spencer O’Brien of Courtenay.
