FRANCE – Better than a kiss from a crush on Valentine's Day, Canada won bronze in mixed team parallel Tuesday (Feb. 14) in a stunning performance at the 2023 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Courchevel Meribel, France.
Consisting of Canmore trio Erik Read, Jeff Read, and Britt Richardson, and Valérie Grenier of St-Isadore, Ont., the foursome won Canada's first-ever world championship medal in the team event by defeating the ski heavyweights of Austria in the small final.
“I think Canadians thrive off of high-energy and teammates supporting each other," said Richardson, 19. “To be able to work together as a team and be in the start as one group and aiming for a gold medal or just the best race ever, we all had the same mindset and to be able to push each other was really cool.”
Mixed team parallel is an exciting knockout format with four skiers (two men and two women) taking on four skiers from another nation. With four runs in each race, two competitors ski side-by-side in parallel slalom. The winner of each head-to-head race wins points for their country. If there's a 2-2 tie, the team with the better combined time advances.
RELATED: Canmore brothers, next gen skier recap bronze at alpine world championships
In the 16-team bracket, Canada had a dream run by knocking out Slovenia and Switzerland in its first two heats. In the semifinals, Canada was defeated by the United States and went to the small final.
Canada matched up against Austria, which lost in its semis to Norway.
Olympian Grenier was first out of the gates in the bronze medal race and gave the Canucks a huge lead. The final racer was long-time national team veteran Erik Read who held off Stefan Brennsteiner in the deciding run.
“We had such a strong team out there today and everyone was just skiing incredibly well every run," said Richardson. “We worked so well as a team and the vibe was really good and we were able to just send it every run and end up on the podium and it was just such a cool thing and such a cool experience."
USA won gold against Norway.
Mixed team parallel World Championships podium 2023 👭🏼👬🏻
— FIS Alpine (@fisalpine) February 14, 2023
🥇 🇺🇸 World champions for the first time
🥈 🇳🇴 Vice champion after their title two years ago
🥉 🇨🇦 wins the first ever medal at the World Championships #fisalpine pic.twitter.com/vQ5oqItS1i
