SKI CROSS:

Canada ski cross stars head back to school in Collingwood

Feb. 9, 2011 — Canada Ski Cross 

BLUE MOUNTAIN, Ontario — Canada's ski cross stars have journeyed back to school to prepare for this week's World Cup stop at Blue Mountain, Ontario.

World champions Chris Del Bosco of Sudbury, Ont., and Kelsey Serwa of Kelowna, B.C., and their teammates visited about 4,000 children at schools in Collingwood, Ont., this week. Their next task is to try to own the podium on home soil in Friday's World Cup races at the Rockstar Ski Cross Grand Prix.

"It was awesome. I've been to four schools and everyone is really excited for the race," said Del Bosco. "I'm excited to be back in Canada and I'm really looking forward to keeping the momentum going. I will probably have 10 or more family members there for the race."

Del Bosco and Serwa won gold at last week's World Championships at Deer Valley, Utah, and Whistler's Julia Murray grabbed silver. Serwa also won gold at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado, the previous week, while Del Bosco won silver.

Both world champs are in the hunt for the overall World Cup titles despite missing the stop in Germany to attend the X Games. Del Bosco is second behind Austria's Andreas Matt in the men's standings, while Serwa is third behind Germany's Heidi Zacher and Sweden's Anna Holmlund on the women's side.

"I didn't do too well there last year. It was before the Olympics and I was kind of stressed out," said Serwa, of finishing ninth at Blue Mountain in 2010.

"This year is different. It's not that I don't care if I do well or not, it's just I'm not so stressed out," added Serwa, who suffered a back injury during the X Games but expects to be ready to roll in time for Thursday's qualification round. "I think that's why I'm doing well."

In addition to the world champs, Canada has several athletes on both the men's and women's side who could contend for the podium.

The Blue Mountain stop is particularly special for Nik Zoricic of Toronto and Dave Duncan, who was born and raised in London, Ont.

"My friends, my family, everyone's here," said Zoricic, who has been skiing well this season and was second in the World Cup race at St. Johann, Austria, last month. "This has been one of the things circled on my calendar. For both Duncan and I this is home.

"There's going to be a load of support. We've been talking about this all year. If we do well it's going to motivate all the kids. A podium would be huge."

The school visits, which got under way Monday, included stops at 14 elementary and high schools.

"It was phenomenal," said Mark Kristofic of the World Snowsports Event Group, co-chair of the Rockstar Ski Cross Grand Prix. "We were lucky to have world champions at all the schools we visited. The kids loved it."

Eric Archer, Canada's head coach, said this week's races at Blue Mountain are special for the Canadian team and the sport of ski cross as a whole.

"It's good to have a home event in any sport and definitely in one that's growing. Last year, coming to Blue Mountain proved there's interest in what we are doing," said Archer.

"The last couple of weeks have been physically demanding (for the athletes) but I would like to see them focus for one more week. It would be really good to win in front of the home crowd."

ROCKSTAR SKI CROSS GRAND PRIX SCHEDULE

Thursday, Feb. 10
10 a.m. ET - Women's qualification
12:15 p.m. ET - Men's qualification

Friday, Feb. 11
1 p.m. ET - Ski cross finals, men and women
2:35 p.m. ET - Awards