Olympics at stake: Canadian ski mountaineering team set for winner-take-all race vs. U.S.
CBC
Canada’s ski mountaineering athletes have their Olympic dreams on the line this weekend at a World Cup event in Solitude, Utah.
The mixed relay race doubles as a winner-take-all race between Canada and the United States to decide which country’s athletes claim the final two quota spots available for Milano Cortina.
Canada will have three teams in that race, but all eyes will be on the top-ranked mixed relay duo of Emma Cook-Clarke and Aaron Robson. They’ve spent the last year accumulating Olympic qualification points from six World Cup events and the world championships and have put themselves within striking distance of their goal.
Ski mountaineering is making its debut on the Olympic programme, and is an intensely physical sport that is a combination of uphill climbing and downhill skiing. Instead of using a chairlift, skimo athletes use 'skins' on the bottom of their skis to grip their way up the slopes and then ski back down.
A trip to the Winter Games is the immediate prize for Cook-Clarke, 32, and Robson, 39, but the teammates believe their result will also have big consequences for the future of their sport in Canada, which could greatly use the spotlight that Olympic participation would bring.
“The prospect of becoming an Olympian for Canada is something that I can't believe…it's so surreal. It would mean the world to me to be able to achieve that for our country,” Cook-Clarke said. “I've done my best to control what I can control and I know that, regardless of the outcome in this final World Cup, I'm super proud of all we've done and where we are, and I'm excited to keep developing the sport in Canada.”
Canada’s final chance at qualifying skimo athletes for Milano Cortina rests in that mixed relay race on Saturday by way of the continental quota. The top-ranked relay team from each continent in the world earns a men’s and women’s quota spot at the Olympics.
The Canadians hold the absolute slimmest of leads heading into Solitude – a single point separates them from the U.S. – so whichever country’s team performs the best in Saturday’s mixed relay race will lock down those final spots at the Olympics.
Watch Saturday’s mixed relay event live on the CBC Sports YouTube channel beginning at 2:05 p.m. ET. CBC Sports will live stream every ISMF World Cup event this season on YouTube. Check the CBC Sports broadcast schedule for more details.
The mixed relay event features teams of one man and one woman, where members of the team carry out a circuit one after the other, with each athlete racing twice. The team with the fastest total time wins the race.
Cook-Clarke said Saturday will undoubtedly be the biggest race of her career.
“I've never been in a competition before where the Olympics were at stake. And for it to be such a tight margin is a really exciting opportunity,” she said. “I'm really proud of our team for getting to be in this position. We dealt with a lot of adversity, and we did pretty much everything ourselves, which was great, but definitely not easy.
“I know that leading into this final World Cup in the qualifying window, we've all done everything we could. We've tried to control what was in our power, and we're ready to throw down as best we can, in true Canadian fashion.”
Competing at the Olympics has been a dream for Robson since he was seven-years-old, but that was seemingly dashed after injuries he picked up over his track career and he “hung up the spikes” in his mid 20s. But after discovering skimo, Robson began to see that becoming an Olympian was a legitimate possibility once more.
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