India Sherret breaks through with first career World Cup ski cross win

India Sherret won the women’s race at the FIS Ski Cross World Cup in Alleghe, Italy on Friday. It is the first career World Cup victory for the 27-year-old.

In the big final, Sherret took the lead at the top of the track and built it up to be able to resist a charge from Switzerland’s Saskja Lack at the bottom. Sherret finished 0.16 of a second ahead of the Swiss skier, with another Swiss racer, Talina Gantenbein, coming in for third place.

“I don’t even really know what I’m feeling right now, I feel so proud and so thankful,” said Sherret. “It’s been four years since I’ve been on a podium and it’s been a rough go but I know that I’ve always had it in there. I really just today was able to put it all together. I knew I was strong in the start and just held it the whole way down. Crazy!”

An Olympian who competed at PyeongChang 2018, Sherret had two previous podium finishes in World Cup races. One third place finish came in January 2018, just ahead of her Olympic debut, while the other was in December 2019.

Canadians who have been more accustomed to being on the podium — Marielle Thompson, Brittany Phelan, and Hannah Schmidt — took the first three places in the small final to finish fifth, sixth, and seventh overall, respectively. Schmidt continues to rank first in the overall World Cup standings for women’s ski cross while Thompson is third. They are separated by just 53 points.

Reece Howden was the top Canadian in the first men’s race of the weekend. He won the small final to finish fifth overall and hold his lead in the overall World Cup standings. Carson Cook was also in the small final and finished seventh.

There will be another set of races on Saturday in Alleghe before the circuit heads to Bakuriani, Georgia next weekend.