Schmid wins ski cross gold

In a race which pits four skiers against each other starting off shoulder-to-shoulder, Schmid took the lead from the gate and avoided tangling skis or poles with the other skiers chasing him as they careened down the rolling, sharply curved course.

"It's amazing, we had a lot of fun out there today," said Schmid, who pumped both arms in the air and shouted after crossing the finish line. "The start was very important.

"Today went perfectly," said Schmid, who won the qualifying time trial and each of his heats leading into to the final.

Andreas Matt of Austria held steady on his skis behind Schmid to take the silver while the big battle on the course turned out to be for the bronze medal.

The 4,300 people who filled the grandstands at Cypress Mountain waved Canadian flags and went wild at the hope that Canadian Chris Del Bosco, a former US skier with dual citizenship, might win bronze.

But right after he moved into third place and was coming toward the finish line, Del Bosco proved why ski cross was considered an anything-can-happen sport.

Del Bosco had just passed Norway's Audun Groenvold for third place and was closing in on Matt when the Canadian lost his balance coming off a jump and landed hard on his leg.

The crowd groaned loudly as Del Bosco went down, opening the way for Groenvold to win the bronze.

"I was thinking 'it isn't over until you cross the finish line,'" said Groenvold. "I hung on his tail - when you see someone crash like that, it's a mixed feeling."

"Unfortunately he made a big mistake which gave me a good chance to pass. That's how the sport is," he said.

The debut of ski cross, an X Games event that is described as a mix between NASCAR, roller derby and motocross, was as crash-filled and as exciting as expected.

"I think we had a lot of close races, a lot of passing, some crashes," said Groenvold. "In our ski cross sport there's a lot of things going on and I think you had all that today."

Several top racers crashed out early, including former US Alpine star Daron Rahlves, who wiped out in the first heat after tangling in the air with France's Ted Piccard.

Rahlves, a medal hope for the US team until he dislocated his hip at the X Games last month, fell hard on his back and laid in the snow for a while.

Jamaica's sole Winter Olympian, Errol Kerr, a dual US-Jamaican citizen, finished better than both Americans.

He made it through to the quarter-finals where he finished third behind Schmid and Canadian Davey Barr and failed to advance to the quarter-finals.

The Games were already well underway when Barr learned he was going to represent Canada after two team-mates got hurt and he placed sixth on a speedy course he did not get to practice on until race day.

"It took me a few runs this morning to sort of get a feel for the course. Everybody else had like two days of training on it. I managed to figure it out a bit," a smiling Barr said.

Barr's last-minute invite to the Olympics team meant he had to do more than just learn the course. A coach had to prepare a uniform for him while officials scrambled to get him a room in the Olympic athletes' village in Vancouver.

Age: 25

Place of birth: Frutigen, Switzerland.

Residence: Frutigen, Switzerland.

Best career achievements:

10th, 2007 World Championships, Ski Cross

Fourth, 2006/07 World Cup, Ski Cross

Background:

Schmid became the first Olympic gold medallist of the inaugural ski cross event at the Vancouver Games.

The 25-year-old construction worker, who leads this season's ski cross World Cup rankings, also enjoys travelling.