Danielle Poleschuk, Kelsey Serwa and Ashliegh
McIvor had a Canadian sweep in Grindelwald.
Audun Groenvold, Michael Schmid and Chris Del Bosco
fly to the finish line in Grindelwald.
Kelsy Serwa, also in her second year on tour, grabbed three
World Cup wins this season including leading the sweep in
Grindelwald, to finish fourth overall.
The men’s circuit was dominated start to finish by 26-year-
old Swiss racer Michael Schmid, who before this season had
only one World Cup victory. He added five more this year on
top of becoming the first-ever ski cross Olympic gold medalist. Wins in Branas, Meiringen-Hasliberg and Sierra Nevada
(March 19) and a second-place finish in Grindelwald sealed
the deal as he ran away with the title, 268 points ahead of his
nearest rival.
With two World Cup wins and three more podiums, Canadian Chris Del Bosco finished second overall for the second
consecutive year. The Aspenite, whose father is Canadian, also
took gold on the all-Canadian X Games podium.
For the ski cross Nations Cup, the Canadian team had the
best overall results for the third consecutive year.
Norwegian Olympic bronze medalist Audun Groenvold finished the season strong with a win in Grindelwald and two
second-place finishes in Meiringen-Hasliberg and Sierra Nevada to land third overall.
With its two most experienced and brightest ski cross stars
(Daron Rahlves and Casey Puckett) reportedly calling it a career after the Games, the U.S. program went into rebuilding
mode and found good seeds for the growing. After finishing
sixth at the X Games and second in a NorAm race in Sugar
Bowl, Calif., John Teller kept his confidence building with an
11th-place finish in Branas. He then went on to finish 13th and
21st at Ski Cross Week.
“He’s been with us pretty steadily over the last two years trying to make the breakthrough on the World Cup,” said U.S.
ski cross head coach Tyler Shepherd. “Since Lake Placid he’s
really come into his own. Not only qualifying at World Cups
but making good results as well. He is able to qualify now with
ease. That confidence is there and he knows he can hang with
the best guys. Once you break through that mental barrier you
can really prove to yourself that you can do it.”
Also in her second year on the World Cup, former U.S. alpine
racer Caitlin Ciccone ended the season with back-to-back ca-reer-high finishes with a 19th and 15th-place results at Ski
Cross Week.
“The fact that she is able to improve steadily is motivation for
her,” said Shepherd of Ciccone, who qualified in every World
Cup she started this year. “She had a huge jump this year. At
the last race of the year she gained confidence that she can
actually move through the rounds. We are really pleased with
her and are hopefully going to go all the way through the next
Olympic cycle to Sochi.”
According to Shepherd, next year’s ski cross team will be
nominated in a few weeks.
“The team will again be small,” said Shepherd. “We’re not
working on huge budgets so a small team is not a bad thing
and we’ll continue to grow. John and Caitlin are frontrunners
for nomination but we still have some meetings and things to
look at first.”
Rahlves and Puckett ended the season in 15th and
18th overall, even though their World Cup participation
was limited.
