A trio of Canadians will be competing for medals in the women’s freestyle skiing halfpipe competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Rachael Karker of Guelph, Ont., Cassie Sharpe of Calgary and Amy Fraser from Halifax all advanced to the 12-athlete final after the qualification round Thursday.
Each athlete in the 20-team field had two attempts in qualification with their best score counting in the standings. Karker wowed the judges with two impressive runs, scoring 88.50 in her first attempt and 89.50 in her second to qualify in second place — behind only Chinese star Eileen Gu. This is the 24-year-old Karker’s first Olympics, but she did win the silver medal in halfpipe at the 2021 FIS World Championships.
Rachael Karker bringing the FLAIR
Second run in the books for Karker with two more Canadians to come
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— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 17, 2022
Sharpe’s first run score of 86.25 held up as her better total and helped her qualify in sixth place. She is the reigning gold medalist in this competition from the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics but is coming off an ACL and MCL tear that kept her out of competition for most of 2021.
Fraser — also making her Olympic debut — scored a 75.75 on her second run to qualify in 11th.
The final will be contested Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. ET.
