Jack Morrow hopes to be the next Whistlerite to emerge as a ski-cross household name.
Coming from the community that produced Olympic gold medallists Ashleigh McIvor-DeMerit and Marielle Thompson, he hopes to follow in their tracks.
"Skiing ski-cross has always been my passion," he said. "Hopefully, I make it to the Olympics. It's what I want to do when I grow up."
At the first Western Canadian SX stop near Prince George late last month, Morrow took a pair of silver medals in the U16 event, narrowly missing out on gold.
"It's a really fun course. It had lots of bumps of the course, and I'm really good at accelerating over those. That was a big thing that helped me," the 14-year-old said. "The finals were definitely a lot closer (than the heats). The first runs, we were ski-lengths apart and it was down to a photo finish in the finals."
Morrow's two teammates from the Lower Mainland also medalled, as Jack MacDonald took a gold and bronze in U16, while Griffin Brunec-Parsons won two bronzes in U18.
Bobsleigh, skeleton athletes just miss podium
Konigssee wasn't a prime stop for Canadian bobsleigh and skeleton athletes on the weekend.
The German stop on the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation tour saw Canadians finish narrowly out of the medals in fourth-place. The women's bobsleigh team of Kaillie Humphries and Cynthia Appiah was tantalizingly close, as was women's skeleton racer Mirela Rahneva.
Humphries and Appiah had a strong start, sitting second after the first run and getting off the best push to start the second. However, American sleds took the top two spots, with the Elana Meyers Taylor and Kehri Jones combination taking first, just ahead of Jamie Greubel Poser and Aja Evans, and Germany's Mariama Jamanka and Annika Drazek. In terms of other Canadian sleds, Alyssia Rissling and Melissa Lotholz took ninth and Christine de Bruin and Catherine Medeiros ended up in 16th.
Rahneva's story was the opposite of the bobsledders' as she rose from seventh after her first run up to fourth. Germany took all three medals, with Jacqueline Loelling taking gold, Tina Hermann silver and Anna Fernstaedt bronze. North Vancouver's Jane Channell ended up in 11th while Elisabeth Vathje slipped to 14th.
No male athlete cracked the top 10, as the Justin Kripps and Alex Kopacz entry took 11th, while Chris Spring and Neville Wright were 15th and Nick Poloniato and Dan Sunderland ended up in 24th. Germany's Johannes Lochner and Joshua Bluhm posted the top time, followed by Americans Steven Holcomb and Carlo Valdes and fellow Germans Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis.
As for the skeleton athletes, Barrett Martineau was the top Canadian in 12th, while Kevin Boyer took 17th and Dave Greszczyszyn 19th.
B.C. Bike Ride announced
The B.C. Bike Race is offering a new, non-competitive option in 2017.
The first-ever B.C. Bike Ride will run from. Aug. 5 to 13, with a day of riding in North Vancouver before riders head north to tackle singletrack in Williams Lake, Prince George, Burns Lake, Smithers, Terrace and Prince Rupert.
Lodging, transportation, meals and craft beer is included with the package. The ride is open to 100 participants at a cost of $3,999 per person. Registration opens on Feb. 7 at 9 a.m.
For more, visit www.bcbikerace.com/bc-bike-ride-north.
Timber Tour coming this weekend
Some of the province's best young freestyle athletes will grace Whistler Blackcomb's slopes this weekend.
Whistler Blackcomb Freestyle Ski Club will host the Timber Tour and Super Youth Challenge.
Competition begins with the moguls event on Feb. 3, while the slopestyle challenge will take place on Feb. 4, and the weekend will wrap with skiers sending it on the big air jump on Feb. 5.
All events are on Blackcomb Mountain, as the moguls will take place on Lower Straight Shot while the other two will take place at the Blackcomb Terrain Park.
All spectators must be on skis or snowboards, as no walk-ins are permitted.
