Canada’s Brady Leman has earned his Olympic redemption.
Leman, from Calgary, won gold in the men’s skicross at the Pyeongchang Games on Wednesday, making up for a disappointing fourth-place finish at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Toronto’s Kevin Drury was last in the four-man big final after crashing with Sergey Ridzik, an Olympic Athlete from Russia. Ridzik recovered enough to finish behind Leman and Switzerland’s Marc Bischofberger.
Drury was seemingly O.K. after the crash, shouting encouragement to Leman before the podium ceremony.
David Duncan of London, Ont., was fourth in the small final, putting him eighth overall.
Montreal’s Chris Del Bosco crashed in an earlier heat and was taken to hospital where he was conscious and stable. A spokesperson for Freestyle Canada told The Canadian Press that Del Bosco has a suspected pelvic injury.
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Canadian curler Rachel Homan is leaving the Olympics earlier than she’d hoped. Her rink’s fifth loss of the women’s round robin eliminated them from medal contention, the first time Canada has ever missed out on a medal in either men’s or women’s curling since the sports made its return to the Winter Olympics in 1998.
Homan’s team fell 6-5 to Britain’s Eve Muirhead in the morning draw. The Canadians needed to win it and their round-robin finale against Olympic Athletes from Russia to avoid elimination.
“I’m a little bit disappointed,” Homan said. “We wanted to try and qualify and make playoffs for Canada, but we gave it all we had. We never gave up. It’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s sport.”
The top four teams in the round robin advance to the semifinals.
South Korea’s EunJung Kim (7-1) and Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg (6-2) were already playoff-bound prior to the final draw. Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa was 5-3 ahead of Muirhead at 5-4.
Canada’s Kevin Koe was 5-3 with one game remaining in the men’s round robin against Denmark.
Snowboarders Mark McMorris and Max Parrot could earn more medals after qualifying for the men’s big air final.
McMorris, from Regina, was third in the second heat, scoring a 95.75 on his second run to qualify for Saturday’s final.
Parrot, from Bromont, Que., was the top qualifier in the first heat with a 92.50 run. Sebastien Toutant of L’Assomption, Que., also advanced with his 91.00-point performance.
McMorris is less than a year removed from a catastrophic backcountry snowboarding accident. He has already earned a bronze in men’s slopestyle at these Games behind Parrot, who took silver.
The top six performers from each 18-man heat advanced.
In figure skating, Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown, N.L., was in third place following the women’s short program. Osmond scored 78.87 points, 4.05 behind leader Alina Zagitova.
The Canadian Press
