Picture
Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • Aerials
    • Aerial Skiing About
    • Aerial Skiing News
    • Airleigh Frigo
    • Laura Peel
    • Danielle Scott
    • Abbey Willcox
  • ALPINE
    • Alpine About
    • Alpine News
    • Madison Hoffman
    • Harry Laidlaw
    • Louis Muhlen-Schulte
    • Greta Small
  • Moguls
    • Moguls Skiing About
    • Mogul Skiing News
    • Jakara Anthony
    • Matt Graham
    • Jackson Harvey
    • Cooper Woods
  • Park & Pipe
    • Park & Pipe About
    • Park & Pipe News
    • Tess Coady
    • Scotty James
    • Valentino Guseli
    • Daisy Thomas
  • Snowboard Cross
    • Snowboard Cross About
    • Snowboard Cross News
    • Josie Baff
    • Cameron Bolton
    • Belle Brockhoff
    • Mia Clift
    • Jarryd Hughes
    • Adam Lambert
  • Individual Athletes
    • Individual Athletes About
    • Individual Athletes News
    • Bree Walker
    • Kiara Reddingius
    • Alex Ferlazzo
    • Tahli Gill
    • Dean Hewitt
    • Hektor Giotopoulos Moore
    • Anastasiia Golubeva
    • Holly Harris
    • Jason Chan
    • Brendan Corey
    • Rosie Fordham
    • Hugo Hinckfuss
    • Ellen Søhol Lie
    • Lars Young Vik
  • About
    • OWIA News
    • Sport Integrity
    • Media
    • OWIA About
    • OWIA History
    • Executive & Staff
    • OWIA Policies & Documents
    • OWIA Calendar
    • Sponsors & Partners
    • Australian Sports Foundation
    • Newsletter
    • Privacy
    • National Redress Scheme
    • Medical
    • Contact

Crema crosses seventh in a dramatic day of SX racing

19/2/2014

 
PictureKatya Crema of Australia celebrates in the Freestyle Skiing Womens' Ski Cross © Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Katya Crema produced the best skiing of her career to place a sensational seventh in the Ski Cross event at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. It was a season best for the 25-year-old, in difficult conditions on the Extreme Park course at Rosa Khutor. 

Jenny Owens also skied really well in the last event of her long and distinguished career to place 12th.

Sami Kennedy-Sim on Olympic debut showed glimpses of brilliance but ran out of luck in her 1/8 final to finished the day ranked 28th. 

It was a day of high drama with delays due to crashes and fog, plus tough snow conditions from heavy rain.

Owens and Kennedy-Sim had some trouble on the seeding run but Crema showed good speed and stayed out of trouble to be ranked 11th. 

After a strong qualifying run she was thrilled to ski so well in the head-to-head racing at the Olympic Games.

"My goal here was top 8 so I’m absolutely rapped," Crema beamed.

"That second heat I was so happy with that pass on the last turn. It was my last chance to get into the top two and I just went for it and it paid off."

In her semi-final she was back at the start and when gaining on the leaders she had to avoid the falling Swedish competitor. From there she could not improve on third behind eventual gold medallist Marielle Thompson (CAN). 

In the small final she again was pushing the leaders on her fifth race down the course for the day but couldn’t quite get there to end with a final ranking of seventh.

"I guess it is whose performing on the day and I think I laid one down so I’m pretty happy."

The result improved on her 15th from Vancouver 2010 and equals Scott Kneller’s best Australian Ski Cross results at the Olympics from 2010. 

Three-time Olympian Jenny Owens competing in the last event of her career was sporting a facial injury from a fall in training days ago and she had another small fall in the seeding run.

Yet she showed all her experience and determination to bounce back and ski so well.

She was second in her 1/8 final and just missed progressing from her quarter-final in third after making a mistake on the course.

"I just overshot that triple up the top and you can’t make mistakes like that. So unfortunately that was it," Owens said.

"I had trouble getting forward and I think I was a bit nervous in my last event – sort of just lost myself in it all."

Kennedy-Sim’s skiing career looked in doubt last April when she suffered at mild stroke yet she built herself back up and had a career best fourth place in a recent World Cup in France.

She was in a qualifying position from her 1/8 final before coming unstuck and falling.

"Unfortunately that’s the sport. It’s rough and tumble and that’s why we love it," Kennedy-Sim, who is married to Cross Country Skiing Olympian, Ben Sim, said.

"It just goes to show, it’s anybody’s race.

"I think I’m still developing as an athlete, so I’m looking forward to continuing and hopefully in Korea (PyeongChang 2018) I’ll be 29 and that’s not too old in our sport."

It was a great day for the Canadians. As well as gold to 21-year-old Thompson her teammate Kelsey Serwa won the silver and Sweden’s Anna Holmlund was ecstatic with bronze. 37-year-old Frenchwoman Ophelie David, who first won a medal at the 2005 World Championships, fell when pushing for the lead and finished her Games fourth. 

Serwa, David and Thompson were the three fastest skiers in qualifying hours earlier.

Andrew Reid | sochi2014.olympics.com.au


Aussies positive despite crashing out

18/2/2014

 
PictureKatya Crema of Australia celebrates in the Freestyle Skiing Womens' Ski Cross © Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Australia’s two male hopes in Ski Cross were bundled out in the 1/8 Finals, after crashing on the course at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park on Day 13. It seemed like every race had a crash and for the Australians luck was not on their side. The event was a clean sweep for the French team. World champion Jean Frederic Chapius led for most of the Big Final and hung on to win the Gold. Arnaud Bovolenta skied to Silver and Jonathan Midol the Bronze. Canadian Brady Leman crashed out near the bottom of the course pushing hard to make up ground and finished fourth. 

Racing in Heat 2, Australian hope Scott Kneller had a slow start but positioned himself well in the field looking for opportunities to pass before crashing halfway through the race on a tight turn.

Kneller recovered to finish the race in third place, but with only two out of each heat going through to the next stage, his Sochi Olympic campaign was over. Earlier in the day he was ranked 24th after the seeding run.  

Just competing at these Games is an achievement for the 24-year-old, after a serious training crash in December.

He spent three days in hospital with concussion and four broken vertebra and after intense treatment and gym work passed a medical test to take part in the event last Monday.

“The backs feeling good actually,” Kneller, who placed seventh at the event’s Olympic debut in 2010, said.

“It was a bit sore but nothing crazy, just to be able to come out and do that is incredible. I’m feeling all right and just happy to be here.

“I thought I skied pretty well and I was competitive it was tough being behind. I had speed but you couldn’t pass in the soft snow. It made it a little bit challenging to be behind and I had a shocking start but I can walk away from this one with a smile on my face.”

Teammate Grimus took to the course following Kneller in Heat 3.

After kicking off the day with a blistering seeding run where he placed 5th out of the 31 competitors, Grimus had a slow start on the track.

The Victorian’s Olympic debut then came unstuck with a crash towards the end of the twisty obstacle course, finishing the heat in fourth place.

The 23-year-old said the sport was unpredictable.

“I got out to a shocker start and then look I fought back and the top I probably went a bit too soon and then down the bottom at the first cut-out I sort of made my move and they made their move back,” he said.

“That’s Ski Cross really. You can’t win everything.”

Grimus said Australian women’s Ski Cross competitors Jenny Owens, Sami Kennedy-Sim and Katya Crema, could learn from the men’s mistakes on the course.

“It’s a tough track out there and everything’s possible. I’m not sure what the conditions are doing but they can gauge a lot out of the race today,” he said.

“Good jumps ... it was fun, really fun.”

For Kneller, competing in a sport he loves, at the Olympics was enough.

 “It was such a big achievement for me to come here and be semi-competitive,” he said.

“It’s just unfortunate it didn’t pay out in the end.

“I gave it a red hot go and just juiced it a little far on that bottom triple.

“I had a great time and it’s just good to be here and skiing in the sunshine and doing what I love it’s good times.”

For now, Kneller is headed back to the University of New South Wales to finish his Engineering/Commerce degree.

“My body needs a rest. It’s been a pretty intense couple of months. I could do with a bit of R and R,” he said.

“We’ll just see where things take me but I’m going to take a break from skier cross for a while. So it should be good.” 

For Grimus, two years worth of bushy beard will be getting the shave on Saturday, raising money for the Rob Kneller Foundation.

The Foundation was set up by Scott Kneller and his brother Luke, in memory of their father Rob, who passed away in April.

The aim is to provide young children in their home town of Jindabyne, NSW, the chance to take up Skiing.  

Grimus has already raised about $14,000 and said he’s already given the honour of shaving it to his ski technician Marcus Ruiz-Navarro.

“He does a good job with my skis. He makes those edges sharp ... I can trust him for sure.”

Kneller said he was looking forward to seeing a shaven Grimus.

“It’s just unreal I can’t thank him enough for that, it’s quite incredible with his generosity. I’m looking forward to it I haven’t seen him without his beard for quite some time. He’ll be like a totally different man!”

The women’s Ski Cross will be held on Day 14 of the Olympics, with seeding starting at 18:45 (AEDT). 

Annie Kearney | sochi2014.olympics.com.au


    ARCHIVES

    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    August 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    August 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    August 2010

    RSS Feed

    NEWS CATEGORIES

    All
    Anton Grimus
    Doug Crawford
    Jenny Owens
    Katya Crema
    Sami Kennedy Sim
    Sami Kennedy-Sim
    Scott Kneller

Picture
OLYMPIC WINTER INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA
​

CONTACT
​
O'Brien Icehouse
Level 2
105 Pearl River Road
Docklands, VIC 3008
Australia

P
hone: +61 3 9686 2977

ABOUT                 
OWIA History
Executive & Staff
Policies & Documents 
Sponsors & Partners
OWIA Calendar

Australian Sports Foundation
North American Medical
Media Center


SPORT INTEGRITY
​
​SITE MAP

AERIAL SKIING
News
ALPINE SKIING
News
​
MOGUL SKIING
News
PARK & PIPE
News
SNOWBOARD CROSS
News

INDIVIDUAL ATHLETES
News


Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

​Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy  |  2024 © Olympic Winter Institute of Australia  All rights reserved