World Cup champ Howden set to make Olympic debut with stacked Canadian ski cross team

Canada’s Reece Howden is aware of that there might be numerous stress on him on the Beijing Olympics as ski cross’s reigning Crystal Globe winner. However he additionally is aware of that he’s removed from Canada’s solely medal hope within the sport this yr.

Howden earned the Crystal Globe as the general World Cup males’s ski cross champion in 2020-21 after profitable 4 races and making it to the rostrum two different instances. The product of Cultus Lake, B.C., stated he has to give attention to the one factor he can management: his snowboarding.

“I do know that if I ski effectively, if I do what I’m speculated to do, I’m going to achieve success. The outcomes will come,” stated Howden. “I’m making an attempt to not get too carried away within the outcomes.

“However yeah, the stress is there, for certain. However I’m coping with it very well and I’m excited to see what I can do that yr.”

The depth of Canada’s males’s ski-cross workforce solely begins with Howden.

Ottawa’s Jared Schmidt is a podium risk having received bronze at a World Cup occasion in Bakuriani, Georgia, on Feb. 27 and once more in Arosa, Switzerland, on Dec. 14. He additionally earned silver at a Nor-Am Cup in Nakiska, Alta., on Jan. 19 in Nakiska, Alta.

Toronto’s Kevin Drury received the Crystal Globe in 2019-20, which means Canada has been house to the world’s greatest males’s ski-cross racer in back-to-back years. Drury earned the honour with seven World Cup wins that season. He additionally completed fourth within the ski cross remaining on the Pyeongchang Olympics 4 years in the past.

Calgary’s Brady Leman is the reigning Olympic champion, having received gold on the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games. He stated holding the title is a double-edged sword due to the expectations that include it however as a result of it can be liberating.

“I labored my complete life dreaming of profitable an Olympic medal, however realizing full effectively that it may not occur,” stated Leman. “It takes a little bit little bit of the stress off for this time (having already received), for certain.

“Simply to win one is completely a dream come true, so it’s fairly particular. I’m simply sort of making an attempt to roll with it, embrace it.”

The highest-ranked males’s ski-cross racer of 2021, Howden might be making his Olympics debut in Beijing. It received’t be his first time in an Olympics-like setting, nevertheless, as he additionally represented Canada on the 2016 Youth Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.

“I've a fairly good grasp of what the overall concept is, of what’s going to go on,” stated Howden. “Moreover the truth that, , with COVID and the Olympics being in China, it’ll be positively new for everyone.”

Regardless of his appreciable Olympic expertise, Leman agrees with Howden that there might be a component of shock on the Beijing Video games.

“I’m certain that’ll be an entire completely different ball sport,” stated Leman, who added he didn’t know what to anticipate for your complete ski-cross season. “However my philosophy final time was simply to attempt to take pleasure in all of it and actually embrace the second on the Olympic Video games, as a result of it’s on a very completely different scale than the rest we cope with as athletes.”

Ski cross might be held on the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, China, about 200 kilometres northwest of Beijing. Males’s ski cross might be held on Feb. 18.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 29, 2022.