Dual Olympian Sami Kennedy-Sim has recorded her best result of the season after finishing eighth in the women's Ski Cross finals at Phoenix Park on Friday. 

While the 29-year-old said that it was "hard not to be disappointed" with her placing, the skier heads into her last remaining World Cups after PyeongChang confident and ready to fight. 

"That was a solid battle and it's a step up for me and the best result that I've had all season," she said.

"I'm going to continue building on this, I've got three more World Cups after this straight away so it's time for me to get my act together and keep producing these performances."

Canada dominated the podium, with compatriots Kelsey Serwa and Brittany Phelan winning gold and silver while Switzerland's Fanny Smith secured bronze. 

Prior to the finals, Kennedy-Sim spent time reviewing old footage from the PyeongChang test event. 

"I was looking for race footage from when we were here ... and all I could find was our qualifying footage so we decided to have a watch," she said.

"Two years ago I was still making small finals and getting similar results but I am so much better now than I was two years ago.

"Then talk about four years ago, six years ago, everyone is just stepping up in this sport and it is a pleasure to be part of it.

"To be one of the top girls in the world, that's sick and I hope that I can get other kids to come and have a crack, it's super fun!"

After the Sochi Olympian was guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals due to Italy's Lucrezia Fantelli not starting, the Sydney native said that she was afforded an "extra training run" in her first heat of the day. 

"I just managed to knuckle everything down when it counted and get into the semi," she said.

"I skied the run that I've had on my mind the whole time I've been here and it finally came out on snow."

Misfortune struck the skier when her pole broke at the beginning of the semi-final. 

"Unfortunately I had a bit of bad luck in the semi-final to go through to the final breaking my pole at the start and getting stuck.

"Exercising my fitness and my strength by having got myself up the Wu-Tang which didn't feel very good."

While Kennedy-Sim was disappointed to have missed out on walking with her teammates in the Opening Ceremony, there was a sea of green and gold at Phoenix Park to cheer the Olympian on. 

"I've looked out in the crowd today and there's a big sea of yellow Aussie jackets here. That to me has summed up my Olympic experience, coming down in my first heat and just seeing so many Aussies, everyone cheering my name, that's amazing to have that support," she said.

"I'm really lucky to have my family here, some friends, some teammates but also my Ski Cross family.

"Our small team, we are a big family and we travel and spend way more time together than we do with our own families.

"I'm really looking forward to sharing today with them and being able to spend time with people and really relax a bit.
"In two days we pack up and it's business again."

 David Barden
olympics.com.au

Sami Kennedy-Sim has achieved a top 10 finish in seeding at the women’s ski cross competition at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang.

Predicted inclement weather forced organisers to move seeding from Friday to Thursday, with finals now scheduled for earlier in the day on Friday.  

Kennedy-Sim was sixth to go in the seeding round, crossing the line with a time of 1:14.97.

She finished ninth overall and 1.86 seconds off the pace, which was set by Canada’s Marielle Thompson.

The Sochi Olympian was happy to blow away some of the cobwebs and post a strong run.

“I had my worst run ever in training this morning, so to get those Olympic nerves out of the way was a good thing,” Kennedy-Sim said.

“My start was really strong but I’ve got some elements that I need to clean-up. Looking good going into a race tomorrow, it will be fun,” she said.

Kennedy-Sim knows she’ll need more than a strong start if she is to move through Friday’s finals.

“Always something I can rely on but on this track, we had quite a bit of passing in the training days and there was crazy passing yesterday in the men’s (event).

“Fair game, everyone has a bullseye on their back here.”

The 29-year old takes confidence from her previous Games experience.

“I learnt that anything can happen at an Olympics. The cool thing is you don’t have to worry about the qualifying run because you’ve already qualified. Takes the pressure of a little bit.

“Win lose or draw, if I can inspire a couple of kids at home to get off the couch and get active – that’s the best thing, that’s what the Olympics is about,” she said.

Women’s Ski Cross finals begin 9am local time (11am AEST) on Friday 23 February (Day 14). Kennedy-Sim will start in heat two in the round of eight finals. 

Finals consist of 1/8 finals, quarterfinals, semifinals, small final and big final. The competitors are placed in the heats of the first phase (1/8 finals) based upon their seeding. Each heat can have a maximum of four competitors with the first two competitors of each heat advancing to the next phase.

Michelle Cook
olympics.com.au

Dual Olympian Anton Grimus has missed out on progressing through to the quarterfinals of the men's Ski Cross on Wednesday after placing fourth in his eighth final heat at Phoenix Snow Park. 

The 27-year-old suffered a crash during his seeding run and went into the first final round with a sore shoulder which hampered his chances of finishing within the top two of the heat. 

While Wednesday's event has seen multiple crashes as each skier tries to be the fastest down the mountain, Grimus joked that he prefers it to the thought of having to compete in other freestyle skiing sports.

"Put it this way, I'd much rather do this than aerials," he said.

"I guess it's all a matter of if you're comfortable with what you're doing and we train day in, day out, off the snow and in the gym. We've got great support from our nation in that and, like anything, if you do it once, if you do it twice, you're going to get used to it.

"There's consequences -- especially on the big stage -- everyone's going hard, that's how it is."

With his PyeongChang campaign now over, Grimus said that he's looking forward to cheering on the remaining Australians who are yet to compete at the 2018 Winter Games, including teammate Sami-Kennedy Sim. 

"We've got a really close knit group," he said.


David Barden
olympics.com.au

The sun was out in full force at Phoenix Park on Sunday as Sochi 2014 Olympian Anton Grimus had his first official day of on-course training ahead of Wednesday's Ski Cross competition. 

The 27-year-old, who has had a rollercoaster of a season as scheduled events across Europe were cancelled or cut short, said that he was "stoked to be able to get some actual training on a course" before he makes his second Olympic appearance. 

"I'm fortunate that we've got three days here of training which is probably more than we've gotten at an event this winter," he said.

"It's a great course, matches up really well and from a safety aspect it's pretty good as well because you're never too high up in the air but the jumps are big. Sochi, the last jump was just insane - there was no room for error. But here, you can really just go full gas, trust in yourself and let it rip."

Despite having undergone two surgeries in the past 15 months, Grimus is heading into PyeongChang 2018 confident and with the knowledge that he can ski fast. 

"I just know I can do it."

"We've got a great team here, heaps of support, dietitian, physio, doc [and] coaches all around us.

"We'll be spending a bit of time at the computer seeing where we can go better and that ski tech will be making sure that our skis are fast.

"I've got full trust in everyone and we've got a great team with OWI [Olympic Winter Institute] and AOC [Australian Olympic Committee] has put up a really good show here for us and everything's organised I think better than any other team.

"We definitely have all the tools to be able to execute and it's great."

David Barden
olympics.com.au