Weekend recap: Shiffrin crashes, Kingsbury soars
CBC
This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.
Here's our weekly look at the top performances by Canada's Olympic athletes on Saturday and Sunday. But first, some news involving an international star.
Alpine skiing: Shiffrin crash costs her a big win
Mikaela Shiffrin was on the verge of becoming the first alpine skier ever to reach 100 World Cup wins when the American star was injured in a crash during Saturday's giant slalom race at Killington resort in Vermont.
Shiffrin led after the first run and had the finish line in sight on her final run when she lost an edge and went head-over-skis into the safety netting lining the course. She suffered a deep puncture wound on the right side of her abdomen but appeared to escape any other significant injuries, the U.S. ski team said. "Something stabbed me," Shiffrin said in a video she posted on social media. There's no timeline yet for her return.
A controversial new rule requires alpine skiers to wear airbags that deploy when they crash, but the special vests are only required for the downhill and the super-G — the fastest and most dangerous of the alpine disciplines. Serious injuries are far less common in the giant slalom and slalom.
Canada's Valerie Grenier finished ninth in the giant slalom — her first race since a devastating crash ended her season last January. Laurence St-Germain was a season-best seventh in Sunday's slalom.
Quebec's Mont-Tremblant was scheduled to host a pair of women's giant slaloms this coming weekend, but they were cancelled due to a lack of snow. The men will be at Colorado's Beaver Creek for the first downhill and super-G races of the season. Here's a look at the Canadians competing there.
Freestyle skiing: A special win for Kingsbury
World Cup moguls victories are almost routine for Canada's Mikaël Kingsbury, who came into the season opener in Finland with a record 90 of them alongside his eight world titles and 2018 Olympic gold medal. But Saturday's win was Kingsbury's first as a dad, and his three-month-old son Henrik was there for it. "It's so cool to have my family here and win in front of my kid," said Kingsbury, who called it a "top three" moment in his career.
WATCH | Kingsbury opens World Cup season in style in Finland:
Kingsbury won by a comfortable margin over Sweden's Walter Wallberg, who beat him for the Olympic gold in 2022, and Japan's Ikuma Horishima, who took the World Cup moguls championship from Kingsbury last season (Kingsbury retained the dual moguls and overall titles).
Canada's Maia Schwinghammer placed fourth in the women's event, matching the best World Cup moguls result of her career (she won a silver in dual moguls last year).
Curling: Homan wins another Slam