Ski Cross, Men

Of the three Frenchmen who had swept the podium in men’s ski cross at the 2014 Winter Olympics, two of them returned four years later to defend their achievements: winner Jean-Frédéric Chapuis and runner-up Arnaud Bovolenta. Although Chapuis had taken silver at the 2015 World Championships, and had a few recent World Cup victories, neither he nor his compatriot were the favorites for the event in 2018. That distinction went to Marc Bischofberger of Switzerland, who was first in the World Cup rankings at the time of the Games. Sweden’s Victor Öhling Norberg, the reigning World Champion, was also a contender, while the 2015 edition of that tournament was won by Slovenia’s Filip Flisar.

Each round of the ski cross was divided into heats of four competitors, with the top two advancing. The course in PyeongChang was particularly brutal and, due to the number of athletes who crashed during training, was modified shortly prior to the final in order to make it safer. The changes were not enough for Canadian Christopher Del Bosco, a three-time Olympian and multiple medalist at the Winter X Games, whose crash was so bad that the quarterfinals were delayed while medical professionals checked up on him and then removed him from the course. Still, with the exception of the eliminated Norberg, the rest of the skiers pressed on. Chapuis came last in his heat during the quarterfinals, while Flisar and Bovolenta dropped out in the semifinals. This left Bischofberger facing Russia’s Sergey Ridzik and two Canadians, Brady Leman and Kevin Drury.

Of the three, Leman was the most distinguished, having been the 2016 Winter X Games Champion. He had also been the fourth skier in the final at the 2014 Olympics, but had crashed during his run, paving the way for the French medal sweep. His luck four years later, however, was much better, as he managed to beat the favored Bischofberger down the course and capture the gold medal, leaving the Swiss competitor with silver. Ridzik and Drury, on the other hand, crashed into one another, and while Drury’s ski came off, disqualifying him, Ridzik held on to his equipment, got up, and made it down the hill to claim the final podium spot.