Vancouver Island is better known for producing Summer Olympians and Paralympians, the latest group of nearly 75 which is preparing for the delayed Tokyo Olympics this year. But there has been a notable ice and snow element added with back-to-back Winter Olympic gold medals won by Jamie Benn from Central Saanich in hockey at Sochi 2014 and Cassie Sharpe of Comox in freestyle skiing at Pyeongchang 2018.
Today is the one-year-out anniversary of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and the Island gold rush does not appear as if it will abate in the Chinese capital, even if those Games look to be loaded with possible political boycotts and potential lingering pandemic peril.
Golden hopefuls include Sharpe and Canadian women鈥檚 hockey team blue-liner Micah Zandee-Hart of Saanichton. The NHL will return to the Winter Olympics, after a hiatus in 2018, but Dallas Stars captain Benn has been surpassed by other Canadian forwards and is not likely to make the roster this time around.
Zandee-Hart鈥檚 trajectory is headed the other way. A late cut from the 2018 Olympic women鈥檚 team, which lost to the U.S. in the gold-medal final, the Islander is now a mainstay of the Canadian blueline.
鈥淭he time has flown since 2018 and we鈥檙e now a year out and working toward our goal of getting back on top of the Olympic stage. Beijing 2022 is the vision we all have,鈥� said Zandee-Hart.
Also on the ice, in his hometown of Beijing, could be veteran Victoria Grizzlies forward Eddie Yan. He is a Chinese citizen on the long list for the host nation men鈥檚 hockey team.
鈥淚 have graduated from the U-20 national team, and the first [China] national team senior camp is [this] spring. The Olympics is something I have dreamed of my entire lifetime and it would be special,鈥� said Yan.
鈥淲e鈥檒l see how the COVID 颅situation is by then. I think, overall, the organizers will make it happen for the 2022 Winter Games. It鈥檚 exciting to look 颅forward to.鈥�
Sharpe, meanwhile, is spending the one-year-out anniversary in the infirmary with a knee injury sustained last week in the Winter X Games in Colorado. Being carted off the field, floor, ice or slope on a stretcher is the nightmare fear of any athlete. But if she had to go down, Sharpe did it as she would have wanted 鈥� pushing the envelope of her sport.
The Olympic gold medallist injured her left knee last Friday after she landed the 1260 but then caught an edge and lost her balance as her left leg folded under the weight of her body. The medical crew rushed to her. Known for her irrepressible spirit, the Islander smiled and flashed the victory sign to the cameras as she was being slid to the medical tent on a ski gurney.
The jump was still good enough to earn the Highland Secondary graduate the X Games silver medal in the women鈥檚 ski halfpipe event.
鈥淚 was just go big or go home. I was just trying to send it as big as I can, and I did. 鈥� I鈥檓 really stoked that I did it,鈥� Sharpe told the Aspen Times.
Sharpe is back in sa国际传媒 and in the midst of her 14-day quarantine. The extent of the injury has not been disclosed.
鈥淐assie is in good spirits,鈥� said her father Don Sharpe, 颅former director of business operations on Mount Washington for 17 years. 鈥淪he鈥檚 a trooper. She will return.鈥�
While her dad worked in the office there, Sharpe grew up on the slopes of Mount Washington. She now has a ski run on the Island mountain named Cassie鈥檚 Gold in her honour after she won the ski halfpipe at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea.
Sharpe was among four Mount Washington-produced skiers in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics as years of sliding down the Island hill is beginning to be noticed at the top level. All four Islanders attribute growing up in close proximity to Mount Washington as the reason they developed into Olympians at Pyeongchang. Sharpe won gold, Teal Harle of Campbell River was fifth in the men鈥檚 ski slopestyle and Carle Brenneman of Comox 14th in women鈥檚 snowboard cross in their Olympic debuts and Winter Games veteran Spencer O鈥橞rien of Courtenay was a finalist in women鈥檚 snowboard big air and also competed in slopestyle.
Cassie Sharpe could also be joined by younger brother Darcy Sharpe in Beijing. The past 颅Winter X Games medallist in the men鈥檚 snowboarding slopestyle was an alternate in 2018 and is favoured for the 2022 Canadian Olympic team. Growing up, the brother and sister used to pack sandwiches in their pockets and spend all day skiing on Mount Washington.
Darcy Sharpe, a graduate of Mark Isfeld Secondary in 颅Courtenay, is also currently injured with a knee issue. Not that it matters this year because the pandemic has greatly 颅curtailed the 2021 freestyle 颅season with few competitions available. Next year to the day, with the pandemic likely well in the 颅rear-view mirror, it looks to be a different story.
