Golden day for Sweden
Feb 26, 2023·Ski Cross
Finally Ski Cross found its World Champions 2023. After three days of strong wind, bad conditions on the course and a very long waiting game, Saturday, 26 February 2023 was finally the day which brought us a blue sky, only slight wind and four new world champions.
Everyone was expecting that world cup leader Sandra Naeslund (SWE) would be dominating this world championships on the women’s side and so she did. On the men’s side, the young Italian Simone Deromedis (ITA) who never won a world cup race before took home his maiden win and became the new World Champion in ski cross.
Next to the single event, we also handed over medals in the mixed team event for the very first time at world championships in ski cross history. With Sandra Naeslund and her teammate David Mobaerg crossing the finish line first, team Sweden not only wrote ski cross history but also took home three out of four gold medals this day.
Double World Champion title for Naeslund
In Saturday’s world championships big final, we saw Marielle Thompson (CAN) the qualification winner in red, reigning World Champion from 2021 Sandra Naeslund (SWE) in green, Fanny Smith (SUI) in blue and Kathrin Ofner (AUT) in yellow.
From the first heat on, Thompson and Naeslund won every single run until they finally met in the big final. As Thompson showed some really good skiing and beat Naeslund for the very first time in time trials this season, the result was more open than it was in every past eight races. Everyone was excited whether finally someone could beat the for 14-month unbeaten Naeslund or if she will achieve another victory in the most important race of this season.
Out of the gate it was Naeslund who had the fastest reaction time followed by Thompson and Smith and Ofner head-to-head in third position. Ofner was pushing the rollers better than Smith, gained a lot of speed and skied into the first turn in sole third position.
The ski cross train was skiing down like this until the corner jump, where Thompson jumped too far, got out of balance and only avoided a crash in the last second. This mistake costed her so much speed, that Ofner and Smith managed to overtake her in the next section.
Naeslund who was already 1,5 seconds in front of their prosecutors in the second intermediate showed her dominance once again by winning her third world championships title and this with only 26-years.
Ofner and Smith were fighting untill the very last second for second and third place. In the end, the photo finish decided. Ofner got second, Smith got third and Thompson came away empty handed, at least in the single event.
Deromedis took home first major win for Italy since 2004
What an exciting race we saw once again on the men’s side of things, with Simone Deromedis (ITA) starting in red, Florian Wilmsmann (GER) starting in green, Erik Mobaerg (SWE) in blue and Reece Howden (CAN) in yellow.
Howden who showed some really good skiing all day long was leading the four men into the start section followed by Wilmsmann, Deromedis and Mobaerg who had some problems in the start section in fourth position.
Like in the women’s big final, the corner jump was one of the key elements in the men’s final run. Howden as well as Wilmsmann had some struggles there which cost them speed and opened the door for the young Italian to pass both of them, which he did.
Deromedis even gained so much speed that he pulled ahead of his persecutors. Howden now in second position made another mistake which lead to an overtake by Wilmsmann and Mobaerg.
Howden tried everything to get back on the podium spots but failed.
The 22-year-old Deromedis crossed the finish line first and can now call himself Ski Cross World Champion. He definitely was not on everyone’s list for the win, as he never stood on top of the podium in a World Cup or major event before.
German Florian Wilsmann achieved his best world championships result and got second. The Swede Erik Mobaerg confirmed his good performance from the last championships in 2021 in Sweden and got third again.
Mobaerg and Naeslund wrote Ski Cross history
For the first time in ski cross history Bakuriani hosted the world championships also for the mixed team event in ski cross.
In the big final we saw team Sweden (Sandra Naeslund and David Mobaerg), team Canada (Marielle Thompson and Reece Howden), team France (Marielle Berger Sabbatel and Youri Duplessis Kergomard) and team Italy (Jole Galli and Federico Tomasoni).
Howden and Mobaerg crossed the finish line almost simultaneously, followed by Tomasoni and Duplessis Kergomard with 1,5 seconds behind. This time difference was at the same time the delay for the women from Italy and France at the start.
Thompson did everything to keep up with her Swedish competitor Naeslund but had no chance to beat the Swede who already won the single world champions title three hours before.
In the end, team Sweden was unbeaten today, the two favorites for the single event Thompson and Howden (CAN) won the silver medal in the mixed team event. Team Italy won bronze and team France got fourth in the end.
After a really long and exhausting day for all participants we are more than happy that we were able to give out all twelve world championships medals on this Sunday.
Thank you to the organisers of the Bakuriani 2023 FIS Freestyle Ski, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships for their endless efforts.
The ski cross circuit will fly back to Europe on Monday 27 February to recharge their batteries before the next world cup will go down in Veysonnaz (SUI) from 10 – 12 March 2023.
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