Brackendale skier Davey Barr's whirlwind weekend ended with an impressive sixth place finish as men's ski cross made its Olympic debut at Cypress Mountain on Sunday (Feb. 21).
A day ago, the 32-year-old Olympic ski cross team alternate thought the only chance he'd get to ski the course would be as a forerunner clearing the way for the Olympians prior to competition. But Barr got the nod after teammates Dave Duncan and Brady Leman succumbed to injuries during training Friday and Saturday (Feb. 19 and 20).
He went on to exceed expectations by placing sixth out of 33 athletes.
"I'm pretty pleased with my result for where I came in," said Barr, whose parents and friends cheered him on from the stands.
"It's unbelievable. I've been thinking about this for years now, since they made the announcement, but to finally be here and see the awesome crowd we had and all the faces, it's really cool."
While the rest of the skiers had two days of training prior to race day, Barr fit in a mere three training runs before the race Sunday morning. He qualified 25th, but steadily picked up his pace to advance through the one-eighth and quarter-finals. He went on to place second in the four-man small final to take the sixth overall position after finishing third in the semi-final.
He said he didn't have much time to fully feel the pre-race jitters.
"Honestly, I had so much going through my head on just trying to figure out this course this morning that, you know I definitely had some nerves up there but I think trying to learn the course basically took over most of my thoughts and fears," said Barr.
Fellow Canadian Chris Delbosco was in bronze position in the big final until losing control over the final jump, clearing the way for Norway's Audun Groenvold to take his place on the podium. Switzerland's Michael Schmid won gold and Austria's Andreas Matt won silver.
The only other Canadian, Stanley Hayer, finished 10th after being eliminated in the quarter-final.
