HIGH ACHIEVERS: Jared Schmidt rides ‘emotional rollercoaster’ to first World Cup men’s ski-cross victory

By Martin Cleary

Jared Schmidt is the No. 1 men’s ski-cross racer on the World Cup circuit.

Believe it, even if it lasts only a few days, weeks or maybe even the entire season.

“That’s crazy to see. I had no idea until the FIS lady told me,” the Dunrobin, ON., racer told High Achievers in a phone interview, after his wild and crazy World Cup victory in Val Thorens, France, on Friday.

It was Schmidt’s first-ever World Cup win, after earning one bronze medal in each of the 2022 and 2021 seasons. The 2022 Winter Olympian has been on the World Cup ski-cross circuit since 2019 and had 36 World Cup starts.

Schmidt’s win was worth 100 points and combined with the 12 points he was awarded from his season-opening 21st-place finish on Thursday, he leads the World Cup standings with 112 points. Austria’s Tristan Takats, who won Thursday’s race, is second at 109 points.

Granted, the World Cup season is only two races old and there are 14 more events on the FIS schedule, but Schmidt travelled “an emotional rollercoaster” over four races Friday with speed, class and a little luck to win the Big Final and surge onto the top berth of the World Cup standings.

“It was cool to battle from 28th place to win. It was sweet,” the West Carleton Secondary School graduate added.

Meanwhile, his sister Hannah Schmidt reached her second consecutive Small Final in the World Cup women’s ski-cross race, but pulled off the course so she wouldn’t interfere with another skier and finished eighth. On Thursday, she won the Small Final, which earned her fifth place.

The 2022 World Cup silver medallist in Val Thorens, Hannah made some critical technical changes to her skiing in the off season and is tied for sixth place on the women’s World Cup circuit with Marielle Thompson of Whistler, B.C. Thompson, an Olympic gold and silver medallist, has won 59 World Cup medals in her career, including 21 gold.

Brittany Phelan of Mont-Tremblant, PQ, finished 0.53 seconds behind Daniela Maier of Germany to collect the silver medal. Phelan encouraged alpine skier Jared to try ski cross in 2018.

On Wednesday, Jared finished 28th in his solo qualifying run to determine the 32-racer field for Friday’s World Cup race. It meant he would be facing faster skiers for any subsequent races.

But Jared wasn’t concerned about who was fast in the qualifying as he produced good speed on the course, was in the right place at the right time in his races and took advantage of two separate disqualifications to European racers.

One disqualification allowed him to advance to the semifinals from the quarterfinals and the second disqualification saw him elevated to race champion from runner-up in the Big Final of the top four skiers.

“Going up the hill on the (snowmobile), I figured the worst I could do is fourth. So, I may as well try to go for first,” he explained about his approach to the final. “Fourth is sweet and awesome, but my mentality was if I’m going to be fourth, why not first.”

For most of his way down the course, which had six sharp turns and plenty of bumps, he was in fourth place.

“I wasn’t having a great run, but I wasn’t making any mistakes,” he continued.

Suddenly, Youri Duplessis Kergomard of France veered right and off line and crashed into Johannes Rohrweck of Austria. Rohrweck fell, but Duplessis Kergomard maintained his balance and the lead. Schmidt took advantage of the mishap, moved into second place and carried that to the finish line. Schmidt was 0.07 seconds behind unofficial winner Duplessis Kergomard.

A protest was lodged immediately after the race and Duplessis Kergomard was issued a yellow card for contact by sliding offline into Rohrweck. The French skier was dropped to fourth place from first and Schmidt was elevated to the race winner.

Schmidt, 26, initially responded to Duplessis Kergomard’s disqualification with a slight, almost embarrassed smile and a small hand gesture before he released a celebratory yell. He also spoke to Duplessis Kergomard after the race.

Sweden’s David Mobaerg was second and Rohrweck took third.

“We were waiting about a minute just standing there. There was some talking between the athletes and the (race) jury and he (Duplessis Kergomard) got a yellow card and became fourth.

“I thought, ‘I guess I won.’ It would have been nice to win by crossing the finish line first, but that’s the nature of our sport. Contact is sometimes part of our sport. At the same time, it was surreal. I just won. It was cool.”

When Schmidt woke up on Friday, the forecasted snowfall had materialized. Ski-cross racers like to ski on snow, but not ski when it’s snowing. But by the time he had reached the ski hill, the snow had stopped and race organizers had done an exceptional job preparing the course.

Schmidt placed second in his first round of racing against three other skiers and qualified for the quarterfinals. On Thursday, he was eliminated in that round in the opening World Cup at Val Thorens and finished 21st.

“That was a huge confidence boost into the day,” he proudly said about Friday’s second-place result. “I was rolling and in a groove. It gets you rocking.”

In the quarterfinals, Schmidt placed third and it seemed his work day was complete as only the top two skiers advance. But when Germany’s Florian Wilmsmann was disqualified for using a banned fluorinated hydrocarbon gliding wax on his skis, Schmidt was promoted to second and directed to the semifinals.

“I didn’t know (about the Wilmsmann disqualification) at the time, but my coach told me to put my skis on and head back up to the top,” Schmidt explained. “It’s hard to flip the switch and go back to the racing mode. But I’ll take that as a bonus.”

Schmidt handled his new status as a semifinal racer well and placed second, which qualified him for the Big Final to compete for the medals with three other skiers.

“I didn’t have a great start (in the semi), but I knew I had the speed. I made a couple of passes about halfway down and held onto second to the finish,” he said.

In the final, Schmidt was patient skiing the early part of the race in fourth, capitalized on an opportunity because of the crash and celebrated a second-place finish before it was upgraded to a victory.

“It’s hard to explain. I definitely got lucky, but getting lucky is not uncommon,” he said. “It’s part of the sport. I put myself in the right spot. I was skiing fast enough to capitalize on a mistake.”

The Schmidts are scheduled to return to World Cup racing on Tuesday in Arosa, Switzerland. Jared was the men’s bronze medallist in Arosa in 2022.