Canadian ski cross racer Kevin Drury scores emotional gold-medal win

Canada's Kevin Drury battled his way to a gold medal that left him in tears at a World Cup ski cross event on Friday in Val Thorens, France.

Drury found himself fourth at the start of the big final before taking an aggressive line into the first negative turn on the course, vaulting into a lead that he would not surrender.

"I actually don't really know what happened there. I just knew I was in fourth, so I was gonna set up that negative [turn] and try to carry as much speed as possible into that jump," the Toronto native said after the race.

"I'm guessing they all kind of made little mistakes and I flew past them, so, again, [a] little bit of luck with ski cross, but I feel like I'm pretty good at reading the play in front of me, and making the right decisions, and I think I just did there."

Simone Deromedis of Italy, who took gold on Thursday, won silver after a photo-finish with Austrian Tristan Takacs, who claimed bronze.

The race marked Drury's first gold-medal win in five years, and the two-time Olympian had tears running down his face during the post-race interview.

"I mean, it's just the work that gets put in behind the scenes. [The tears] just show how much I care, and how much I want this," the 37-year-old said.

Drury was swarmed by his Canadian teammates after crossing the line, which he said showed how tighly-knit the group is.

"It just goes to show the strength of Team Canada, right? We actually care about each other," Drury said. "We want each other to do well, it just brings everyone up. So, I'm really excited for this season for the whole team. I think there's gonna be some really good things coming."

Reece Howden, of Cultus Lake, B.C., finished first in the small final to end up fifth overall on the day.

On the women's side, Sweden's Sandra Naeslund earned her second of back-to-back gold medals at Val Thorens.

France's Marielle Berger Sabbatel and Switzerland's Fanny Smith won silver and bronze, respectively.

Three Canadian women raced their way into the semifinals but Britt Phelan, Courtney Hoffos, and Hannah Schmidt each ended up in the small final. Phelan finished second in that event to end up sixth overall on the day while Hoffos and Schmidt did not finish the small final.

Earlier in the day, fellow Canadian India Sherret suffered a crash and had to be tobogganed off the course.