Whistler and Pemberton athletes turned in a number of great performances throughout 2012, while the Sea to Sky communities once again played host to a number of premier events throughout the year.

The second year of the Winter Olympic quadrennial saw some local competitors begin to emerge as future stars, while many that have inspired us with their athleticism in years past left us to reflect on their great careers.

As we prepare for the one-year countdown to Sochi, a busy Olympic qualifying period and a summer in 2013 that will bring more exciting events to the resort, here is The Question’s look back at just some of the highlights from the past 12 months in sports:

January

For nine days, Whistler resident and the entire ski world waited, hoped and prayed that Sarah Burke would recover, but learned on Jan. 19 that she had succumbed to her injuries from a fall in a Utah halfpipe. She was 29.

Burke fell during a sponsored training event at Park City Mountain Resort and suffered a ruptured vertebral artery, which caused her to go into cardiac arrest on the scene. Doctors were able to repair the arterial tear but determined she sustained severe and irreversible brain damage. She died peacefully with family at her bedside.

The outpouring of grief and support that followed was tremendous. Individuals making private donations raised more than $330,000 in mere days to help Burke’s family.

At the end of the month at the Winter X Games in Aspen, where she would have been the women’s superpipe defending champion, Burke was honoured in an emotional tribute. Athletes descended the halfpipe in darkness and silence while holding candles in her memory. Teammate Rosalind Groenewoud succeeded Burke as superpipe champ and dedicated the gold to her late friend and teammate.

Tributes to Burke were ongoing throughout the year, including an emotional memorial service in April and her induction to the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in September. Whistler’s Momentum Ski Camps, which Burke spent years at as a coach and camper, founded the Spirit of Sarah Scholarship and awarded it for the first time this summer.

Whistler’s Samson Danniels also won gold at the X Games, finishing first in Mono Skier X by outlasting U.S. skier Gregory Peck and defending champ Josh Dueck in an exciting final. Maëlle Ricker earned bronze in women’s Snowboarder X at Aspen, and Whistler resident Dave Duncan won bronze in men’s Skier X while teammate Chris Del Bosco took gold.

January provided a couple of highlights for Whistler’s alpine skiers on the World Cup circuit. Mike Janyk, who had missed the last two races of 2011 with injury, came back strong with a seventh-place finish in the slalom at Adelboden, Switzerland, on Jan. 8). It would be his best result of the season.

At the end of the month, Conrad Pridy earned World Cup points for the first time in his career, finishing 25th in the men’s downhill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. In just his fifth start on the tour, Pridy skied into the points from the 50th start position.

Whistler resident Chelsea Henitiuk notched a career-best World Cup result by finishing fourth in the women’s dual moguls event at Mont Gabriel, Que., on Jan. 14. Henitiuk reached the semifinals but was stopped there by teammate Justine Dufour-Lapointe, and Ekaterina Stolyarova of Russia denied her a podium finish in the small final.

February

Canadian athletes combined to win five medals during the FIBT World Cup bobsleigh and skeleton races held at the Whistler Sliding Centre on the first weekend of February.

Lyndon Rush captured two of those medals at the controls of Canada 1, winning gold with Jesse Lumsden in the two-man competition and bronze with Cody Sorensen and Neville Wright joining them for four-man racing.

Olympic women’s bobsleigh champ Kaillie Humphries turned in another golden performance in Whistler by winning with brakeman Emily Baadsvik. For Humphries, it was the first victory in win streak that had reached eight by the end of 2012. Olympic silver medallist Helen Upperton finished third in the event, making her first start of the World Cup season.

Finally, Mellisa Hollingsworth made up for her Olympic disappointment in 2010 by winning gold in women’s skeleton. Latvia’s Martins Dukurs did the same in the men’s race, while John Fairbairn finished eighth as the top Canadian.

Meanwhile, Whistler’s Marielle Thompson won her first World Cup ski cross race in front of a home crowd at Ontario’s Blue Mountain on Feb. 3. Thompson won all of her heats in convincing fashion, making short work of the jump-heavy track. The win moved her to second in the season standings at the time.

Josh Dueck completed the first-ever backflip on a sit-ski on Feb. 3 in Whistler. Video of the jump went viral, earning him an appearance on Ellen and an Adventurer of the Year nomination from National Geographic later in 2012.

On Feb. 20, Whistler’s Will Routley earned a podium finish in the first stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia cycling race in Spain. The SpiderTech rider was part of an early breakaway group that managed to stay out in front of the peloton in the 197-km stage.

About 450 skiers came out for the second annual Sigge’s P’ayakentsut at Whistler Olympic Park, with Callaghan Valley Training Centre athlete Colin Abbott winning the 50-km men’s race on Feb. 25. Rossland’s Kelly Geisheimer won the women’s event.

Whistler and Pemberton athletes helped the Vancouver-Squamish team to the highest medal total at the B.C. Winter Games, which took place in Vernon from Feb. 23 to 26. Among some of the top performers, Sofiane Gagnon won four golds in freestyle skiing, Austin Reith medalled twice in cross-country skiing, and Erin Maher won a pair of silvers in karate.

Whistler Mountain Ski Club athletes were tremendous throughout the month, particularly Stefanie Fleckenstein and Mikayla Martin, who together swept the Bob Parsons Memorial Super-G races at home, shortly after both were all over the podium at K2 provincials at Apex. Cameron Alexander, James Crawford and Riley Seger were outstanding in boys’ races in February as well.

Whistler resident Jon Versteeg earned the first World Cup podium of his career, taking a silver medal in men’s slopestyle at Quebec’s Stoneham Resort on Feb. 26.

March

Whistler’s Marielle Thompson captured Canada’s first individual ski cross Crystal Globe by winning back-to-back races to finish the season. However, it was impossible to celebrate that victory, as well as Canada’s Nations Cup title, as Nik Zoricic died from injuries suffered in a finish-line crash at the final race in Grindelwald, Switzerland on March 10.

The Canadians dedicated the two titles to their late teammate. Zoricic’s father, Bebe, was in Whistler coaching youth skiers at the time of the fatal accident.

“Nik was my inspiration. He gave me the energy to be a ski coach and support other athletes,” said the elder Zoricic, who would later set up the NZ Foundation in his son’s memory. Zoricic’s death also framed discussions for Alpine Canada’s second annual safety summit later in the year.

Brodie Seger won a national J1 title on his home mountain on March 8, winning the boys’ super-G in Whistler and leading a locals’ sweep of the podium. Blake Ramsden earned silver and Austin Llewellyn took bronze. Seger’s three top-six finishes during the J1 Canadian Championships helped him to the boys’ overall title for the week.

Whistler’s Morgan Pridy made his World Cup debut in the men’s downhill at Kvitfjell, Norway, on March 3, finishing 38th. Whistler Mountain Ski Club product Ford Swette travelled to Italy for the FIS Junior World Ski Championships and finished 31st in men’s slalom.

Maëlle Ricker finished the season second in the women’s snowboard cross World Cup rankings, wining two of the final three events to place behind teammate Dominique Maltais in the overall standings.

Eddie Hicks notched his best World Cup performance of the season in the last event of the year, matching a career-best finish when placing fourth in the dual moguls event at Megeve, France on March 18.

Michael Murdoch and Joe Davies won gold medals for the Whistler Nordics during B.C. Midget Championship cross-country ski races in West Kelowna on March 3 and 4. Later in the month, Lauren Doak, Jenya Nordin and Austin Reith all had top-20 finishes at the national championships in Quebec City.

Pemberton Secondary School’s senior boys’ and girls’ teams both advanced to their provincial ‘A’ championships in March, with the girls placing fifth in Prince George and the boys finishing seventh in Langley.

At the end of the month, the Whistler Winterhawks peewee rep hockey team won a provincial championship, the first in the resort’s history. The team won its final 15 games of the season to earn the banner.

Jesse Millen and Jess Rich took home the men’s and women’s titles in the 15th annual Showcase Showdown held on March 31. The previous year’s champion, Darcy Sharpe, won a silver medal in slopestyle at the FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships in Spain on the same day.

April

Switzerland won the overall team title during the 20th Whistler Cup, though local skiers were strong as well. Jack Crawford and Cameron Alexander had podium finishes in boys’ super-G to lead the Whistler contingent. In K1 racing, Finn Iles won the Dave Murray Award as the top Canadian.

Local riders were outstanding to start the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, as local resident Darcy Sharpe won the Big Hip contest that started Monster Energy’s The Shred Show on April 14. He shared the podium with Quebec’s Antoine Truchon, who was second, and fellow local rider Jon Versteeg.

It was Truchon who owned the week of competitions, as he won the slopestyle event later in the week and left the festival with $21,000 in prize money. Whistler rider Logan Haubrich was third in slopestyle. Will Jackways won Boarderstyle and Zak Hale won the Mogul Duel.

Gus Kenworthy was the king of the World Skiing Invitational competitions that closed the festival, as he won both the Monster Energy Big Air — plus a new car as a grand prize — and also won the men’s slopestyle event. The victories helped him to a second-straight AFP overall season title.

Local skiers were solid as well. Mike Riddle of the Whistler-based Canadian halfpipe team won the men’s superpipe competition for his first podium finish of the year, teammate Rosalind Groenewoud won bronze in the women’s event, and Pemberton’s Yuki Tsubota had a podium finish in women’s slopestyle.

On April 28, Whistler’s Nick Geddes finished on the podium in his first B.C. Cup downhill mountain bike race since finishing treatment for leukemia, placing third in the Race the Ranch event in Kamloops.

Whistler’s Will Routley finished 10th in the general classification of the Presidential Tour of Turkey, an eight-stage cycling race that finished in Istanbul on April 29.

May

The month began with Whistler finding out on May 1 it had not been selected for one of the X Games’ global expansion events in 2013. ESPN passed on the plan to combine the premier action sport event with the World Ski and Snowboard Festival in mid-April. Would-be local competitors were disappointed with the news but also were encouraged by the future of the WSSF.

But on May 2, there was good news to celebrate, as the International Paralympic Committee approved para-snowboarding as a new event for the 2014 Olympics. Whistler’s Tyler Mosher, who had been pushing for the sport’s inclusion for nearly a decade, was thrilled with the decision and said he’d start preparing to compete in Sochi.

Local runners had some fantastic finishes in the BMO Vancouver Marathon on May 6. Tara Colpitts finished in three hours, six minutes, 26 seconds to finish 11th among all women and fourth in her 30 to 34 age group. Ashley McMillan, clocking in at 2:53:12, was 35th overall and seventh in the men’s 35 to 39 division.

Mike Boehm was the top local rider in the May 12 Orecrusher in Squamish, finishing seventh overall. Fellow Team Whistler riders Jess Melamed, Trevor Hopkins and Tony Routley were also in the top 20. Cathy Zeglinski and Quentin Emeriau were the top local female and junior riders, respectively.

Whistler skiers Davey Barr and Stan Rey both announced their retirements from the Canadian ski cross team in May, ending successful careers. Barr made an amazing 10 X Games starts and placed sixth in the sport’s Olympic debut at home in 2010.

Penticton’s Joey Spencer set a new Guinness World Record in Whistler on May 13, establishing a new mark for the longest horizontal distance covered on skis for a 720 ramp jump, flying 26.95 metres before stomping the trick. The record was confirmed by Guinness later in the year.

National men’s mountain bike champ Max Plaxton won the Nimby Fifty in Pemberton on May 26, holding off defending champ Neal Kindree by three minutes. In a surprise women’s result, Brackendale’s Brandi Heisterman beat world champion Catherine Pendrel, taking advantage of mechanical problems endured by the Kamloops native.

The annual Crud 2 Mud Downhill race on Whistler, combining skiing or snowboarding with mountain biking, saw Robin Courcelles ski over the snow-less portage to win for the second time in three years. The brother duo of Jake and Tyler Allison made for the fastest team.

June

Vancouver’s David Palermo won The North Face Whistler Half Marathon on June 2, sharing the men’s podium with Squamish’s Jason Loutitt and Vancouver’s Edward McCarthy. Karen Tulloch won the women’s race in a come-from-behind victory over Victoria’s Catrin Jones. Defending champ Care Nelson was third. B.D. Cooper was the top local men’s finisher, placing sixth, and Hayley Winters clocked the fastest women’s time among Whistler runners.

Julia Murray followed partner Davey Barr into retirement from the Canadian ski cross team, stating that her ongoing knee troubles essentially forced her to leave the sport. Murray famously won a silver medal at the 2011 world championships while unknowingly skiing with a torn ACL.

More than 800 fans turned out at Brennan Park Arena in Squamish on June 2 for the Black Diamond Betties’ debut bout against the Sea to Sky Sirens. The Sirens took a 241-56 victory but praised the play of their new rivals to the north.

Whistler and Pemberton’s high school girls’ soccer teams both performed well at their ‘A’ provincials in Kelowna, held June 1 and 2. Pemberton finished fifth in the 16-team tournament and Whistler placed seventh.

The Whistler Minor Hockey Association was named the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association’s Organization of the Year in June, the first time Whistler had been awarded the Fred Page Trophy.

Pemberton’s Laoyam Eagles won a 14th-consecutive junior A title at the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival, going June 16 and 17 at Vancouver’s False Creek. The junior squad, the Laoyam Falcons, finished third, putting two Pemberton teams on the podium for the first time.

Michael Robinson described the June 16 Test of Metal as a “mud bath” after recording the top Whistler finish, placing 16th. Cathy Zeglinski was the fastest local women’s rider.

More than 15,000 people packed Whistler Olympic Park over June 23 and 24 for Canada’s first-ever Tough Mudder, a punishing obstacle course challenge. Most participants said having to wade through ice-cold water was the event’s most difficult element.

Whistler’s Ben Chaddock won the Canadian men’s criterium championship in Quebec on June 24. It was the first win for the Team Exergy rider since turning professional.

July

A flat tire nearly cost Neal Kindree the B.C. Bike Race title during the event’s final stage in Whistler on July 7, but the Sea to Sky resident charged hard to recover and won the overall mountain bike race by 15 seconds over defending champ Chris Sheppard. Kindree entered the day with a four-minute lead. Whistler’s Michael Robinson finished the week 10th overall. Wendy Simms was way ahead of the rest of the women’s field, winning the Epic distance division by more than 2 ½ hours.

Whistler’s Jack Iles won the national Cadet (U17) men’s downhill mountain bike championship in Quebec on July 8. He finished the Mont Sainte Anne course with more than a 15-second gap over the rest of the field.

Pemberton’s Kristi Richards announced her retirement from moguls skiing on July 13, ending a brilliant career. Richards had taken the 2011-12 season off with an eye to making a run at Sochi, but the 2007 world champion decided to pursue other interests instead. Though she had a disappointing 2010 Games, finishing 20th, Richards said competing at home in the Olympics was the “pinnacle” of her career.

Andrew Chapman won a controversial men’s open final on July 15 to take top spot in the second annual Whistler Longboard Festival. The London, Ont., native took advantage of a mid-course collision on the Whistler Sliding Centre service road and came all the way back from last place to win.

The 11 paddlers who travelled to Pemberton for the B.C. Summer Games in Surrey, ending July 22, all came home with at least three medals apiece. Pascha Protter’s five gold medals led the team and included individual victories in the 500- and 2,000-metre races. Whistler’s Sierra Farr won four silver medals in rowing at the event.

Michael Robinson finished eighth for the top Whistler finish in Squamish’s Gearjammer on July 21. Felix Burke was 12th overall to win the junior category, while Jesse Melamed managed to finish 20th despite an early crash that mangled his bike. Chloe Cross was the top local female.

Katrina Strand was the overall winner and Sylvie Allen rode to second in WORCA’s Charlie’s Angels all-female mountain bike race, taking place over July 27 and 28. Nearly 250 riders participated, with Strand winning the downhill leg and Brandi Heisterman taking the cross-country race.

August

Nanaimo’s Steve Smith completed the downhill Triple Crown during Whistler Crankworx, completing the sweep by winning the Jeep Canadian Open Downhill to close the mountain bike festival on Aug. 19. Smith, the first-ever rider to sweep the event’s big three downhill races, was also crowned King of Crankworx. Whistler’s Jack Iles was named Prince and B.C. rider Casey Brown earned the Queen title.

As many of the favourites to win Red Bull Joyride crashed out in windy conditions, including Whistler rider and defending champ Brandon Semenuk, Belgium’s Thomas Genon edged Sweden’s Martin Söderström for top spot and the $25,000 grand prize. Thousands of fans lined the Joyride course to watch Genon backflip the step-up to the course-ending cabin feature en route to victory. U.S. rider Cam McCaul finished third.

In other highlights, Mitch Ropelato and Jill Kintner both won their third consecutive Ultimate Pump Track Challenge titles; Jordie Lunn and Tom van Steenbergen were the two winners of the Teva Best Trick Showdown; Whistler’s Katrina Strand won the women’s Canadian Open Enduro; and the U.K.’s Brendan Fairclough won the first-ever Dual Speed and Style contest.

On Aug. 13, Pemberton’s Aleea Dahinden became the first Canadian junior girl to win a medal at the World Va’a (Outrigger) Sprint Championships, taking a bronze medal in the V1 U19 race in Calgary. Hugh Fisher won a total of five gold medals at the races, while several other local crews did well to reach their event finals.

The Winter X Games announced on Aug. 23 that it would not construct an X Course for 2013, meaning Skier X, Snowboarder X and Mono Skier X were all cut from next year’s schedule. Whistler-based athletes like Ashleigh McIvor who were regular competitors in those events expressed their disappointment and hope that ESPN would revive the races in the future.

Boulder, Colo., resident Jason Schlarb won the Enduro division of the 5 Peaks Trail Running Series race held on Blackcomb Aug. 25. Toronto’s Melanie Sakowski was fastest in the women’s Enduro. Ashley McMillan had the best showing by a Whistlerite.

Nick Geddes wrapped up the men’s Phat Wednesday season title by finishing second in the Aug. 29 F--- Cancer A-Line Classic, a race created in his honour the year before. At that time in 2011, Geddes was still in isolation in hospital as he underwent chemotherapy. Sarah Leishman was the women’s series winner; Robin Potvin won the master men’s crown and Adison MacDonald won the junior title.

September

The Sunshine Coast’s Holly Feniak, who makes her home in Whistler to ride for the summer, won the junior girls’ downhill title at the UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships in Austria on Sept. 2. She became the second junior girls’ champ from the Sea to Sky in the past three years, joining 2010 champ Lauren Rosser of Squamish. Whistler’s Claire Buchar was ninth in the elite women’s race, while Steve Smith followed his Crankworx performance with a bronze for Canada in the men’s event.

Vancouver’s Marvin Guzman was first across the line in the third annual RBC GranFondo Whistler, which took place Sept. 8. The 22-year-old stopped the clock in three hours, 24 minutes, 30 seconds and held off Tim Abercrombie and James Scale to win. Team Whistler riders swept the women’s podium, with Leah Guloien recording the fastest women’s ride for the second time in three years, defending champ Jenny Lehmann taking second and local Cathy Zeglinski placing third.

Sylvie Allen won three of four stages in the Four Kings mountain bike race held Sept. 7 to 9 and took top spot overall in the women’s division. Seb Kemp was the men’s winner, edging Greg Grant for the title.

With five-time defending champ Matt Ryan absent, Mike Boehm took full advantage and won the Westside Wheelup for the first time. He had a comfortable lead over the field in claiming Whistler’s longest-running mountain bike race. Matt Bodkin was the runner-up, and Lesley Clements was the fastest female. Austin Reith was eighth overall as the top junior.

Cross-country running couple Chris Winter and Rachel Cliff were the men’s and women’s winners of the Whistler Spirit Run’s main event races at Whistler Olympic Park on Sept. 22. Winter was among several high-level runners who came to run in memory of Frank Reynolds, the race’s late visionary. Olympian Jessica Smith was another on hand for the festivities, running in the relay event.

Edward McCarthy shattered the old Rubble Creek Classic trail run record on Sept. 30, as the Vancouver runner beat the old mark by six minutes while taking the victory. North Vancouver’s Marieve Legrand won the women’s race, while Whistler’s Ben Biswell was fourth overall and the top local.

The Pemberton Grizzlies won the first game in their history on Sept. 29, scoring a 28-0 win on the road over the Prince George Polars. Dustin Lander and Dave Lepine scored off fumble recoveries to lead the high school-aged team to the win.

October

Despite crashing out in both of his runs at Red Bull Rampage in Utah on Oct. 7, Whistler’s Brandon Semenuk hung on to win his second-straight Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour title. Semenuk, who started the year with a six-event win streak, clinched the title when Sweden’s Martin Söderström fell on his final Rampage run, needing a score in the 70s to surpass Semenuk in the standings.

The World Triathlon Corporation announced Oct. 11 that Whistler would be the new home of Ironman Canada beginning in 2013. After Penticton had hosted the event for 30 years, Whistler’s bid was put on a shortlist that also included Kelowna and Huntsville, Ont.

Team SpiderTech revealed plans to take a one-year hiatus from pro cycling on Oct. 12 as it works towards securing a UCI Pro Tour license, leaving Whistler’s Will Routley without a team for 2013. Routley said it was “brutal news” at the time, but confirmed later in the year that he had landed with a new team that has yet to announce his signing.

Nanaimo’s Jeremy Clegg and Kelowna’s Mel Bos were the men’s and women’s winners in the 50-mile solo race of the Whistler 50 Relay and Ultra on Oct. 20. Richmond’s Point Grey Port-a-Loo team repeated its eight-leg relay victory from 2011.

Pemberton’s Krigi Marti and Whistler’s Kyle Kirkegaard helped the Quest Kermodes women’s soccer team to its first-ever medal in PacWest play, as the Squamish-based team won bronze on home field on Oct. 27. It was Marti’s final game with the team.

November

Whistler’s Ashleigh McIvor announced her retirement from ski cross racing on Nov. 16. The Olympic champion was initially planning to make a return to the World Cup circuit this winter, but said her injured knee was “still on the mend,” a factor in her decision to call it a career. Her retirement announcement came 22 months to the day of her last race. She never competed again after tearing her ACL in an X Games training crash in early 2011. McIvor was also the 2009 world champion and captured one World Cup victory in her career.

Whistler and Pemberton’s high school senior girls’ volleyball teams both had record finishes for their respective schools in November. Pemberton finished second at the zone championships, getting past Whistler in the semifinals, and later hosted a provincial wildcard tournament but could not advance to the B.C. championship tournament. Whistler had never earned a top-four zone finish in school history.

Kaillie Humphries’s gold in women’s bobsleigh led Canada’s four-medal effort in FIBT World Cup racing at the Whistler Sliding Centre on Nov. 23 and 24. Humphries won her sixth consecutive race, and third to open the season, with partner Chelsea Valois. Canada 2 pilot Chris Spring had a breakout weekend, securing the first top-five finish of his career in the two-man event with Jesse Lumsden, then hitting the podium in third for the next day’s four-man race. Lyndon Rush drove Canada 1 to a silver medal in two-man racing.

In skeleton, the Canadian women took three of the top five spots, with Sarah Reid earning a silver medal and Cassie Hawrysh and Mellisa Hollingsworth placing fourth and fifth. Kelowna’s Eric Neilson was the top Canadian male in fifth place.

In his first World Cup race since crashing at Chamonix, France, in January 2011, Whistler Mountain Ski Club product Manuel Osborne-Paradis skied into the top 30 from way back on the start list, placing 22nd at Lake Louise on Nov. 24.

Ben Chaddock found out at the end of the month that his Team Exergy was folding, but the Whistler cyclist found a spot with North Carolina-based Team Mountain Khakis-SmartStop for 2013 instead.

December

Ballerina DMV of Pemberton’s Dreamcatcher Meadows was named the U.S. Dressage Federation’s Dressage Sport Horse Breeding Mature Yeld/Maiden Mare champion for 2012, as well as the Materiale Horse of the Year in the four- and five-year-old mare class. Stable owners Jill Giese and John Dingle accepted the award on Dec. 8 in Louisiana. Ballerina was also awarded the Sunshine Sport Horse Association Trophy as the highest-scoring athlete in all Materiale classes.

Pemberton’s Jenna Spencer returned to the Junior World Cup luge podium on Dec. 7, claiming bronze in the youth A women’s race at Lillehammer, Norway.

The Whistler-based Canadian halfpipe ski team won three medals at the first Olympic qualifying event, while Pemberton’s Yuki Tsubota won silver in women’s slopestyle at the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championship in Breckenridge, Colo., between Dec. 14 and 16.Justin Dorey took gold and Mike Riddle earned bronze in the men’s pipe final, while Rosalind Groenewoud was third in the women’s final. Tsubota travelled to the event as the fourth alternate but made her way into the finals, qualifying fifth, then held a run together in difficult conditions to take second behind Canadian teammate Kaya Turski.

On Dec. 14, Maëlle Ricker took World Cup silver in a one-two finish with Canadian snowboard cross teammate Dominique Maltais at Telluride, Colo. The next day, the two teamed up to win the team event for the first time.

Manuel Osborne-Paradis earned his first World Cup top-10 result in more than two years when he finished seventh in the men’s downhill at Val Gardena, Italy, on Dec. 15.