By Martin Cleary
Maybe Hannah Schmidt will share her latest World Cup ski cross victory with singer-songwriter-actress Lady Gaga.
Minutes before the women’s Big Final in Reiteralm, Austria, the Dunrobin, ON, skier was singing the Lady Gaga song Disco Stick.
It had a calming and energizing effect on Schmidt as she posted her first World Cup victory of the season and moved into fourth place on the overall circuit standings.
Schmidt overcame Canadian teammate India Sherret for the early lead and never looked back as she cleanly handled the 220 metres of vertical drop. Fanny Smith of Switzerland placed second in a photo finish, while Sherret was third and Jole Galli of Italy finished fourth.
“It felt amazing,” Schmidt said in a FIS press release.
Schmidt then revealed one of the main ingredients to her success in the Big Final.
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“To be honest, I sang my theme song – Disco Stick by Lady Gaga. The main lyric in there is ‘Let’s have some fun.’
Schmidt had plenty of fun all day as she was second in the quarterfinals and won her semifinal to reach her second final of the season.
“Honestly, I had a blast today. I skied fast, my starts were on fire. I’m just really happy. I was skiing aggressive up there. I had fun. It was a fun race today and I’m super happy with it.”
In the Small Final, Canadians Courtney Hoffos and Brittany Phelan were first and second respectively to finish fifth and sixth overall.
After six of the 16 World Cup races, Schmidt is fourth in the individual standings at 306 points and trails two-time race winner Daniela Maier of Germany at 388 points, Sherret at 385 points and Canadian Marielle Thompson at 349 points. Maier and Thompson were eliminated in their quarterfinals.
In the men’s race, Jared Schmidt of Dunrobin missed a berth in the top 32 and a jersey for the heats, when his qualification time placed him 37th.
Kevin Drury was the only Canadian to reach the quarterfinals and finished 11th.
Jared secured a position on the start line for the second World Cup race in Reiteralm with the 30th-fastest time in qualifying. Hannah will be back in action too, having qualified in fourth for Friday’s event.
Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 52 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
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