West Vancouver's Georgia Simmerling is off to a scintillating start to the World Cup ski cross season, scoring silver medals in each of her first two races.
Simmerling opened the 2014-15 campaign with a second-place showing at Nakiska in Alberta Dec. 6 and followed that up with another silver last Friday in Val Thorens, France. In both races Simmerling finished behind her Canadian teammate Marielle Thompson, the 2014 Olympic champion.
Friday's race was particularly tight with Thompson reaching out to beat Simmerling in a finger-tip photo finish. After the race Simmerling seemed happy with her showing but also tipped her hat to her talented teammate.
"I stayed calm, caught the girls' draft ahead of me, made some sweet moves over a set of three jumps in a row, and flew into first," Simmerling stated in an Alpine Canada release. "(Marielle) then got into my draft, made a slightly better move than I did over the final jump, and got me at the line."
The following day Thompson won again for her third medal gold in three races while Simmerling missed the big final but won the small final to earn fifth-place points.
The next World Cup ski cross race will be held Jan. 24-25 in Kreischberg, Austria.
