Canada had another productive day at the Beijing Olympics with four medals, bringing its total to 12 since the start of competition.
In the evening, the efforts of Marion Thénault, Miha Fontaine and Lewis Irving enabled the country to win a bronze medal in the mixed team jumping competition in freestyle skiing, a discipline presented for the very first time at the Olympic Games.
Shortly after, Isabelle Weidemann earned a second medal in long track speed skating, finishing second in the 5,000 meter event in six minutes 48.18 seconds, behind Dutch Irene Schouten.
On Saturday, Weidemann had won a bronze medal in the 3,000 metres, making her the first Canadian athlete to reach the podium at least twice since the start of the Games.
Earlier in the day, Éliot Grondin had reached the second step of the podium in the snowboard cross final, and James Crawford had won the bronze medal in the alpine combined.
Following the performances of its athletes on Thursday, Canada has a total of one gold, four silver and seven bronze.
Spectacular race
Failing to reach the top step of the podium during the final round, Grondin displayed all his talent from the beginning to the end of the competition.
He dominated every race until the snowboard cross final in Zhangjiakou, where photo-finishes gave him the silver medal.
Austrian Alessandro Haemmerle crossed the finish line 0.02 seconds before Beauceron in a mad dash and won the gold medal. The Italian Omar Visintin completed the podium.
Grondin, who finished first in qualifying, found himself second for the first time of the day during the final stage.
He followed Haemmerle from one end of the Final to the other until the very end where he dived to try to obtain a few extra hundredths of a second. A few more were missing.
“I knew I was going to have the money, but I gave everything I had,” said the 20-year-old Quebecer.
For his part, Crawford finished with a cumulative time of 2:32.11 minutes, seven tenths of a second behind the winner, the Austrian Johannes Strolz.
Crawford gave Canada a first medal in the alpine combined after placing second in the downhill and seventh in the slalom.
Thus, Crawford got his hands on an Olympic medal before reaching the podium in the World Cup.
“I had been hoping for a World Cup podium for a long time. I continually had the feeling that I was getting closer to it and that I could get there, and that if I kept doing what I was doing, it was going to happen. Today, it finally happened. »
Broderick Thompson of British Columbia finished 8th overall, just ahead of compatriot Brodie Seger.
Earlier, Elizabeth Hosking crashed on her final snowboarding halfpipe run, missing her chance for a podium finish in the final.
Hosking, of Longueuil, tallied 79.25 points to finish the competition in sixth place. A great progression for the one who took 19th place at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018.
The 20-year-old athlete had achieved seventh place at the 2021 world championships.
The other Canadian in the running, Brooke D’Hondt, 16, finished 10th in her first-ever Olympic Games with a score of 66.75. A clear improvement from his 18th place at the world championships in 2021.
Also on Thursday, Canada’s men’s curling team took advantage of the hammer in the final set to save themselves with a 6-5 win over Norway.
The Maple Leaf (2-0) opened its tournament the day before with a 10-5 win over Norway.
Also Thursday, Canadian Keegan Messing finished 11th in the men’s solo figure skating competition with a total of 265.61 points.
He scored 172.37 points in the free program which was contested on Thursday. Two days ago, he had collected a score of 93.24 points, which placed him in 9th provisional place.
Messing is the only Canadian to have competed in the event.
Also, Canada opened its tournament in men’s hockey by facing Germany.
Shortly before the start of the game, the organization announced that Claude Julien, who suffered a recent rib injury, will be back behind the bench for Saturday’s game against the United States.