Team GB skier Rowan Cheshire finished in seventh place after setting a commendable score best score of 75.40 with her safety run and then unfortunately crashing out on her two next runs.

Her first run 75.40 included a big alleyoop, the first 900 of the day, a solid 540, a 700, a switch alleyoop and more. It stuck her right into second place and she stayed there for some time – with Maddie Bowman bailing on her run, before Annalisa Drew came out and went into first, and then the favourites followed.

Rowan’s second run was more disappointing, with a crash relatively early in what was shaping up to be a great run, and her final run unfortunately also ended up in a bail. So it was a 75.40 best score for the UK shredder with following scores of 17.80 and 13.60.

After qualifying for the finals in ninth with a score of 74.0, Rowan should be stoked that she was able to go even better in finals. It’s been a tough past few years for Rowan in which she suffered three head injuries in 18 months and was temporarily forced to leave the sport of competitive halfpipe, so she’ll be delighted to be getting back to the top of her game and it’s great to see her up there.

Cassie Sharpe has already had an amazing season so far outside of the Olympics, winning two of the five women’s halfpipe stops on the FIS Freestyle Skiing tour so far this season – first opening her season with a win in Cardrona, New Zealand back in September, and then in Snowmass in the United States on 12 January.

Brita Sigourney was right behind her there in Snowmass though, and went on to win the following event in Mammoth Mountain in the US. She also finished second in the ski halfpipe at the 2018 Aspen X Games in January, with Cassie in third and Maddie Bowman a couple of steps ahead in first – so the Canadian skier will have known that she faced strong competition coming into finals despite her strong runs in qualification.

Despite this she was able to put down a run that not only won her the gold medal but showed she’s a league above the rest of the field.

Before the Games, Sharpe told the Canadian Star: “Winning is always a bonus, but I want to showcase my ability in a way that I’m really proud of. I want to someone to look and say: Wow, I want to ski like that.

“I want to inspire the younger girls to come up and try it because it’s so fun.”

I think it’s fair to say that Sharpe has achieved exactly that in her first Winter Olympic Games.

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Suffering from a real bad case of Olympic fever? You’ll be pleased to hear that we’ve joined forces with Ubisoft, the folks behind ‘Steep: Road To The Olympics’, to provide you with the very best coverage of the PyeongChang action.

While many of us will never even get close to attempting a switch triple cork 1440 Octo grab in real life, thanks to the magic of video games, and in particular ‘Steep: Road To The Olympics’, that possibility is much closer than you think.

Get STEEP & the Road To The Olympics add-on in the STEEP: Winter Games Edition. Available now

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