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Canada’s Marielle Thompson won silver in ski cross in Beijing on Thursday, 8 years after winning gold in Sochi.
Last in the first half of the race, she moved up the field and managed a daring pass on the inside to climb to second place, behind Sweden’s Sandra Naslund.
Canada’s four representatives reached the semi-final stage, but only Thompson was able to reach the grand final. She was opposed to two other of her compatriots in her wave.
Brittany Phelan was second for the majority of the second semi, but Swiss leader Fanny Smith got in her way on the final jump landing, allowing Germany’s Daniela Maier to slip by 3 hundredths of a second.
Hannah Schmidt and Courtney Hoffos were the other Canadian women competing and taking part in their first Olympics.
In the B final, Phelan, Hoffos and Schmidt took the top three spots in that order to finish 5, 6, 7 overall.
The tone is set in qualifying
The four Canadian women in contention had posted among the eight best times in the qualifying session out of a total of 26 skiers in the hope of obtaining more advantageous round of 16 heats. They all found themselves in waves of different eighths.
Hannah Schmidt was fourth fastest, immediately followed by Olympic champion Marielle Thompson.
Brittany Phelan, another contender, signed the seventh time, ahead of her compatriot Courtney Hoffos.
