Everyone's talking about....Ski Cross
Saturday February 27, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

It made its Games' debut at the weekend as the men's competition was held. It's counterpart, Snowboard Cross, was held in Turin 4 years ago.

On Tuesday night the women's event was held and Canada took gold.

The World Champion, Ashleigh McIvor, dominated the final at Cypress Mountain after the French woman, Ophelie David, crashed out.

Ashleigh McIvor led from the start and never looked like giving up her position. It's Canada's sixth gold medal.

"This is just the most amazing thing in my entire life. I am so proud of myself. There's nothing I could have done to be better equipped," said McIvor afterwards.

The atmosphere on Cypress Mountain was electric, despite the driving snow, and the party afterwards pretty good too.

Earlier in the week the sport got a rousing reception when the men's event was held.

"Did you see that Ski Cross last night", "I have a new favourite Winter Olympic sport", "they must be mad", were just some of the comments people made to PlanetSKI in reference to the new sport.

It was a hot topic of conversation on the radio in the UK and as one PlanetSKI reader did a school run in London she has told us it was the talk of the playground among the parents and the children. "What a brilliant event, so much more exciting than all the other racing."

It was created back in the 1990's, before making its first appearance at the Winter X Games in 1998 and then joining the World Cup Circuit in 2004. Until yesterday not that many people outside of the sport had actually seen it in action.

Tignes Airwaves, 2008Here at PlanetSKI we saw it at the Tignes Airwaves in 2008 and loved it.

The course is the same as that of Board Cross with rolls, jumps, tight turns and sweeping turns.

The competitors have to ski between two gates on the corners to eliminate the possibility of any cheating.

If you want to overtake you need to have the inside line, or risk all on the massive jumps to try to take the lead.

It's a crazy mash-up of skiing style, snowboarding rules, speed skating ethics, and most certainly gladiator carnage.

Many of the competitors have come from an Alpine Ski Race background, whilst others have come from a freestyle background, be it just out riding in the park, or competing in big air competitions.

However, one thing is very much in common, they're fearless and have a love for speed.

The competition starts with a timed qualification run in which the competitors ski down the course individually; the 32 competitors are then split into eight heats of 4 riders. The top two of each race goes though to the next round, the remainders are out of the competition. It's a dog eat dog race as the competitors race down the course.

In the Men's competition Switzerland's Michael Schmid claimed Gold, Austria's Andreas Matt took the Silver and Audun Grønvold of Norway finished in Bronze place.

A nasty crash on the penultimate jump left Canada's Christopher Del Bosco out of the running and on the ground. He was in Bronze position. He was unhurt despite receiving medical attention at the scene.

He was the favourite to win the competition.

See our special Olympic Section on PlanetSKI; as well as the latest news it is has some in-depth features and a few stories that you won't see elsewhere.

While the latest blog from our content editor reveals he has got rather swept up in it all too.

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