Defending Olympic-champion Cassie Sharpe of Comox ended her 2019 freestyle-ski season just as she did in 2018 鈥� as queen of the half-pipe.
The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games gold medallist captured the final FIS Freestyle World Cup women鈥檚 ski event of the season over the weekend on Mammoth Mountain, California.
The result also gave the Islander the overall season title, but she needed gold in the last event of the calendar to secure it.
鈥淚 like to put myself under pressure. It stresses me out, but it鈥檚 so fun,鈥� said Sharpe, in a statement.
鈥淚 came into this not expecting to get the [season championship], and I didn鈥檛 want to get my hopes up about it. If it happened, then yeah. But if it didn鈥檛, I did not want to be upset about it.鈥�
Sharpe knew she needed to pop something truly special: 鈥淕oing into my second run, I knew I was not in the top spot, whatever I did. So I just went out and dropped my new trick that I鈥檝e only done twice before. I鈥檓 just super happy.鈥�
The conditions were not optimal, but Sharpe noted they were the same for everyone: 鈥淭he weather was a little bit tough to deal with, but everyone pushed through that.鈥�
The overall season title took some of the sting out for Sharpe after being relegated to the silver medal behind Kelly Sildaru of Estonia at the 2019 FIS world championships in Park City, Utah, in February. That came after Sharpe won the gold medal in January at the X Games at Aspen, Colorado.
On overall form this season, the Island star showed little or no tailing off from her Olympic-championship year of 2018.
Rachel Karker of Erin, Ont., finished fourth in the women鈥檚 World Cup half-pipe event Sunday. Simon d鈥橝rtois of Whistler won silver on the men鈥檚 side for sa国际传媒 with veteran Noah Bowman sixth, Evan Marineau seventh, Brendan Mackay 11th and Sascha Pedenko 13th.
Meanwhile, Teal Harle of Campbell River placed fourth in the FIS Freestyle World Cup men鈥檚 ski slopestyle event Sunday on Mammoth Mountain. Rising 17-year-old Megan Oldham of Parry Sound, Ont., won bronze in the women鈥檚 competition.
Sharpe and Harle were among the four athletes who grew up skiing and boarding on the slopes of Mount Washington, and who competed in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The others were cross-country snowboarder Carle Brenneman of Comox and former women鈥檚 slopestyle world champion Spencer O鈥橞rien of Courtenay.
The breakout star among the group is Sharpe, who now has a ski run called 鈥淐assie鈥檚 Gold鈥� named in her honour on Mount Washington.
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