Canada’s Thompson races to silver medal in women’s ski cross

Marielle Thompson has added a silver medal to her Olympic resume.

The Whistler B.C., product finished second in women’s ski cross on Thursday in Beijing.

She adds to the gold she won at Sochi in 2014.

Thompson got off to a slow start in Thursday’s final. She was in fourth place for the first half of the race, but when she made her move, she never let go of second place.

Sweden’s Sandra Naeslund, who has dominated the World Cup circuit this season, took gold.

Thompson, Courtney Hoffos (Windermere, B.C.), Hannah Schmidt (Ottawa) and Brittany Phelan (Mont-Tremblant, Que.) all won their 1/8 finals and all advanced from the quarterfinal round as well.

But only Thompson survived the semifinals; the other three dropped into the small final and finished 1-2-3 (Phelan, Hoffos and Schmidt, in that order).

Canada has never missed the Olympic podium in women’s ski cross.

Ashleigh McIvor won gold in the event’s debut at Vancouver in 2010, Thompson and Kelsey Serwa finished 1-2 at Sochi, and Serwa and Phelan won gold and silver at Pyeongchang in 2018.

Thompson now joins Serwa as the only two-time Olympic medallists in the event.

Curling: Canada’s men’s team will play for the bronze medal early Friday after losing 5-3 to Sweden’s Niklas Edin in a semifinal Thursday morning.

Brad Gushue and his team are to face the United States squad skipped by John Shuster in the third-place game.

Canada and Sweden were tied 3-3 after five ends. The Swedes blanked the sixth and seventh ends, took one in the eighth and, after a blank in the ninth, stole one in the 10th to seal the victory.

In a late game Wednesday, Gushue (St. John’s, N.L.), Mark Nichols (St. John’s, N.L.), Brett Gallant (Charlottetown, P.E.I.) and Geoff Walker (Edmonton) wrapped up the round-robin with a 5-2 loss to Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat.

The Canadians finished third in the round-robin at 5-4 and faced the second-place Swedes in the semifinal.

On the women’s side, Jennifer Jones (Winnipeg) and her team of Kaitlyn Lawes (Winnipeg), Jocelyn Peterman (Red Deer) and Dawn McEwen (Winnipeg) beat Denmark 10-4 in their final round-robin game to finish in a tie for third place with Great Britain and Japan at 5-4.

The teams had 1-1 records against each other, so pre-game draw shot challenge numbers were used as a tiebreaker — and Jones was last in the 10-team field in that category. As a result, Great Britain and Japan joined Switzerland and Sweden in the semifinal round.

Canada hasn’t won a medal in women’s curling since the 2014 Games in Sochi.

Freestyle skiing: Three Canadians — Rachael Karker (Erin, Ont.), Cassie Sharpe (Comox, B.C.) and Amy Fraser (Calgary) — qualified for the women’s halfpipe final. It’s set for Thursday night.

As well, three Canadians — Brendan Mackay (Calgary), Noah Bowman (Calgary) and Simon d’Artois (Whistler, B.C.) — will compete in the men’s halfpipe final. It’s to go Friday night.

Alpine skiing: Roni Remme (Collingwood, Ont.) didn’t finish the downhill portion of the women’s alpine combined and was eliminated.

Figure skating: Madeline Schizas (Oakville, Ont.) finished 18th in the women’s free skate to place 19th overall.

Speed skating: Alexa Scott (Clandeboye, Man.) was 12th in the women’s long-track 1,000 metres, with Maddison Pearman (Ponoka, Alta.) 26th.