Crema’s seventh heaven

NSWIS athlete Katya Crema (@KatyaCrema) found herself in seventh heaven on day 14 of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games after finishing seventh in the women’s ski cross.

After breezing through the 1/8 finals with some strong skiing, Crema fought valiantly in the quarter-final to secure a place in the semi-final against world championship silver medallist Marielle Thompson and Frenchwoman Ophelie David, considered one of the greatest ski cross athletes to ever hit the slopes.

Despite finishing third in the semi-final and missing out on the chance to compete for medals, Crema was assured a top-10 place in the small final and eventually crossed the line third to improve on her Vancouver Olympic result of 15th by eight places.

Fellow NSWIS athletes Jenny Owens (@JennyOwensSki) and Sami Kennedy-Sim(@samikennedysim) were also in action on the slopes. 

Competing at her third and final Winter Games, Owens recorded the best ski-cross result of her Olympic career by finishing 12th, one spot better than Vancouver four years ago, while Kennedy-Sim finished 28th overall on Olympic debut after crashing during the 1/8 finals, less than a year after suffering an infarct stroke which jeopardised her sporting career.

Also competing on day 14 was NSWIS alpine skier Lavinia Chrystal (@LaviniaChrystal), who was competing in the women’s slalom. Chrystal, who previously finished 40th in the giant slalom, once again performed strongly to finish 32nd overall.