Naeslund repeats and Mahler wins on home soil in Nakiska

It was the very last Olympic qualifying ski cross competition that went down on Saturday in Nakiska (CAN) in style. And at this point, we have to point out one more time the unusual warm temperatures for this time of the year in Alberta, Canada. For the second race day, it was again temperatures above 0 degrees, which has never been the case for the Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup here.

In any case, it was another day of action-packed ski cross action with unfortunately some crashes, but also really tight racing and passing at times. And, one thing that definitely was visible on Saturday, is that the Canadian team was absolutely on fire after Friday’s disappointing results, to strike back and to fight for those podium spots on home soil.

Naeslund goes for career win number 24 in unusual big final

The women’s big final on Saturday saw Canada’s Marielle Thompson, Fanny Smith from Switzerland, France’s Alizee Baron and, not much to anybody’s surprise, season dominator Sandra Naeslund from Sweden in the start gate. But this big final was far from a usual big final that we are used to witness.

The first odd thing was that on the starter’s command of “Attention”, where the other three athletes went into the starting position of full tension, Alizee Baron did not. And once the gate dropped, the French athlete was the only one not pulling out.

While Baron was left in the start gate, Naeslund again managed to get over the start section as fastest athlete, securing the lead, while Thompson and Smith were a bit behind on the left and right side going over the next jump, where the Canadian was able to get into a tiny bit ahead of Smith. Heading into the next turn, where the Swiss was on the inside line, it seemed, she had too little space to make the next gate, so she was forced to get closer to Thompson, who was slightly in front. Smith then seemed to have lost her line and skied on Thompson’s skis, which unfortunately, caused for both athletes to crash pretty severely.

Naeslund seemed to not have noticed the crash behind her and continued full gas down the course and then going for career victory number 24, bringing her closer to the crystal globe, but also to Fanny Smith’s record of most ski cross World Cup victories among men and women.

Theoretically, it is possible for Naeslund to break that record this season, if she would continue to win every single World Cup race this season, with 6 races left.