It would be an understatement to say 麻豆社国产snowboard cross racer Ma毛lle Ricker is having a good season. While the country is still buzzing over the first Canadian woman to achieve a gold medal on home soil, the elite athlete is staying on track - at the head of the pack - on the competition circuit.
On Friday (March 12), Ricker raced out of the gates during the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup tour snowboard cross final in Valmalenco Italy to take third place and earn herself the coveted FIS Crystal Globe.
Ricker reached the podium for the fifth time this season, giving her 31 during her career. The Crystal Globe is the second of her career. Teammate Dominique Maltais of Quebec finished third for her fifth podium finish of the year and the 17th of her career. American Lindsey Jacobellis took top spot.
The two podium spots give Canada 26 on the year, which is an all-time high.
Ricker is also in the hunt for the overall Crystal Globe, which includes all snowboarding disciplines and takes place in La Molina Spain this weekend. She leads the overall standings, with alpine rider Nicolien Sauerbreij of the Netherlands in second place and Austria's Doris Guenther in third.
Competing in the Olympic Games doesn't seem to have tired out the other local elite snowboarders either - in fact it may be just the thing that's propelled them into their dominant World Cup positions.
Local riders posted some excellent results in the halfpipe contest on Sunday (March 14).
Justin Lamoureux, who posted Canada's best ever Olympic performance in men's halfpipe at the 2010 Games in seventh place, has had a good season on the FIS World Cup Tour and the Ticket To Ride Tour.
Lamoureux, the lone Canadian men's halfpipe athlete to make the trip over to Europe, took fourth place by scoring a best run of 34.8 points. With this fourth place result, Lamoureux now sits atop the FIS World Cup standings with one event left on the tour to win the overall Crystal Globe.
Mercedes Nicoll of Whistler took the third step of the podium on Sunday.
"I don't have any more pressure on me now that the Olympics are over," said Nicoll after the event. "I feel like I'm riding better than ever. I'm really happy with my current results. I guess I'm just more relaxed and ready to try new runs and see how they work out, so far so good."
Spurned by his fifth place Olympic finish, snowboard cross racer Rob Fagan dominated the qualifying run on Thursday, March 11.
Fagan, Canada's best ranked rider on the FIS World Cup tour in fourth place overall, posted the fastest qualifying time within the men's category in the event with a time of one minute, 04.44 seconds. He was followed by Drew Neilson of North Vancouver in fourth place.
"I never lost focus after the Olympics and I wanted to finish off the World Cup season strong and obviously qualifying number one puts me in a great position to do well in this event," said Fagan after the event.
"It's going to be wild racing in the finals. There is not a big difference in time between riders and there is going to be some crazy passing and an awesome finish."
Tom Velisek, also of Squamish, took eighth place.
"All and all I had a great time and was very pleased with my riding and mental state," said Velisek. "I can't wait for the next race in Spain. Now off to Barcelona for some rest and recovery and then up to the mountains."
Snowboardcross coach Tim Milne said he's thrilled with the performance laid by the riders in qualifiers.
"It appears the momentum the snowboardcross team built at the Olympics has carried over to Europe and the final events of the season," said Milne. "Our top guns were on it today and we're stoked to compete in the finals. Finishing first in men and women was stupendous."
The Canadian snowboard team travels to La Molina, Spain, for the 2010 FIS World Cup finals this weekend, where the Crystal Globes for all the disciplines will be awarded.
