Team event silver at worlds for alpine skiers
Canada continued to turn heads at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships on Tuesday, taking a silver medal in the team event.
The mixed gender parallel slalom race, which many hope will be added to the Olympic Winter Games in the near future, featured head-to-head races between 16 nations at the competition. Austria was seeded first and the Alpine Canada team 10th.
Team Canada consisted of Erin Mielzynski, Candace Crawford, Phil Brown and Trevor Philp. They beat seventh seed Germany in the first round before doing away with number two Italy. Sweden (no. 6) would be next to fall, setting up the gold medal clash against powerful Austria.
Erin Mielzynski (left) ahead of her Swedish opponent in the mixed team event.
Canada’s streak of upsets ended in the final however, as Austrians edged the Canucks who kept it close right to the last skier before earning the silver medal, and expressing a great deal of pride and unity in the overall outcome.
“We’re all proud, we fought really hard as a team and came close to the gold, but we’re really happy to be able to stand on the podium as a team. It’s a great day,” Crawford said on the FIS website.
Marie-Pier Prefontaine and Erik Read were the alternates.
The team event brought Canada its second silver medal of the worlds at the Beaver Creek Resort in Vail, Colorado. Dustin Cook was second in the men’s Super-G earlier in the competition.
