Defending Olympic-champion Cassie Sharpe of Comox ended her 2019 freestyle-ski season just as she did in 2018 — as queen of the half-pipe.
The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games gold medallist captured the final FIS Freestyle World Cup women’s ski event of the season over the weekend on Mammoth Mountain, California.
The result also gave the Islander the overall season title, but she needed gold in the last event of the calendar to secure it.
“I like to put myself under pressure. It stresses me out, but it’s so fun,” said Sharpe, in a statement.
“I came into this not expecting to get the [season championship], and I didn’t want to get my hopes up about it. If it happened, then yeah. But if it didn’t, I did not want to be upset about it.”
Sharpe knew she needed to pop something truly special: “Going into my second run, I knew I was not in the top spot, whatever I did. So I just went out and dropped my new trick that I’ve only done twice before. I’m just super happy.”
The conditions were not optimal, but Sharpe noted they were the same for everyone: “The weather was a little bit tough to deal with, but everyone pushed through that.”
The overall season title took some of the sting out for Sharpe after being relegated to the silver medal behind Kelly Sildaru of Estonia at the 2019 FIS world championships in Park City, Utah, in February. That came after Sharpe won the gold medal in January at the X Games at Aspen, Colorado.
On overall form this season, the Island star showed little or no tailing off from her Olympic-championship year of 2018.
Rachel Karker of Erin, Ont., finished fourth in the women’s World Cup half-pipe event Sunday. Simon d’Artois of Whistler won silver on the men’s side for Canada with veteran Noah Bowman sixth, Evan Marineau seventh, Brendan Mackay 11th and Sascha Pedenko 13th.
Meanwhile, Teal Harle of Campbell River placed fourth in the FIS Freestyle World Cup men’s ski slopestyle event Sunday on Mammoth Mountain. Rising 17-year-old Megan Oldham of Parry Sound, Ont., won bronze in the women’s competition.
Sharpe and Harle were among the four athletes who grew up skiing and boarding on the slopes of Mount Washington, and who competed in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The others were cross-country snowboarder Carle Brenneman of Comox and former women’s slopestyle world champion Spencer O’Brien of Courtenay.
The breakout star among the group is Sharpe, who now has a ski run called “Cassie’s Gold” named in her honour on Mount Washington.
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