 Canada's Schmidt siblings continued their surprising ski cross success | | | Nine days after scoring their first career victories just minutes apart, Canadian ski cross siblings Jared and Hannah Schmidt both reached the World Cup podium again.
Jared won today's men's event in northern Italy for his third consecutive gold, right after his older sister Hannah raced to the women's bronze for her second straight medal. She now sits third in the women's World Cup standings while her brother has opened up a massive lead in the men's chase over defending champion and fellow Canadian Reece Howden, who finished eighth today.
No one saw this coming for the Ottawa siblings. Heading into the season opener in France earlier this month, Hannah, 29, had just one World Cup medal to her name — a silver from last December. She placed seventh at the 2022 Winter Olympics, where she was eliminated from medal contention in the semifinals (after a qualifying run, ski crossers race in groups of four, with the top two advancing to the next round). In her two appearances at the world championships, she finished 10th and 19th.
Jared, 26, owned a couple of World Cup bronze medals, but he failed to reach the podium in all 12 of his World Cup starts last season. He finished 10th at the 2022 Olympics and 17th at last year's world championships — his only appearances in the majors.
But Jared has owned the World Cup tour this season almost from the get-go. After failing to make the quarterfinals in the opening competition in France, he won gold the next day at the same venue to kick off his current winning streak.
The sweetest of Jared's three victories came last week in Switzerland. He was in the start area getting ready for the men's final when he heard that three of the four skiers in the women's final had taken each other out in a crash (they were all OK), allowing his sister to cruise to her first-ever gold. When he won the men's final a few minutes later, it marked the first time two siblings had won World Cup ski cross events on the same day.
'It's been a wild ride," Jared said after today's victory, which made him the first Canadian man to win three straight World Cup ski cross golds. "I just needed to find that extra gear and I think I found it.'
"We have the confidence right now, both Jared and I," Hannah said. "We've worked really hard and I think we've proven ourselves."
Outside of the Schmidts, the top story of today's races was a return to the top of the podium by Sweden's Sandra Naeslund, who might be the most dominant athlete you've never heard of. Before placing an uncharacteristic fourth and fifth in the past two events, the reigning Olympic and world champion had won an incredible 18 consecutive World Cup starts.
Naeslund and the Schmidts will try for another gold tomorrow on the same course in Innichen, Italy. You can watch the men's and women's events live starting at 6 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
Those platforms are also carrying Friday's men's slalom race in Italy and the moguls events in the country of Georgia, where Canadian star Mikaël Kingsbury will try for his fifth medal in as many starts this season. Here's the full streaming schedule. | | |  | Canada's Jared Schmidt has won three consecutive men's ski cross World Cup races. (Millo Moravski/Agence Zoom/Getty Images) | | | Quickly… | | | Some other things to know:
Lionel Messi is coming to Canada. Though he did play one match against Toronto FC in Miami in September, the soccer superstar has yet to make a trip to Canada since joining Major League Soccer last summer. In 2024, though, he could visit all three Canadian MLS clubs. Messi's Inter Miami team is scheduled to visit the Montreal Impact on May 11, the Vancouver Whitecaps on May 25 and Toronto FC on Oct. 5. Read more about the Canadian teams' 2024 schedules here.
Aaliyah Edwards had a very nice homecoming. Canada's top women's college basketball player scored 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, both game highs, to lead perennial NCAA power UConn to a 111-34 rout of host Toronto Metropolitan University last night. Edwards, a senior forward who plays for the Canadian national team and is expected to be picked in the first round of next year's WNBA draft, is from Ottawa. The night was part of Huskies coach Geno Auriemma's tradition of arranging a game close to the home of his non-local players. TMU, ranked 10th in the lower-calibre Canadian university league, was not UConn's original opponent. But the Bold bravely stepped in to replace the University of Pittsburgh after the Panthers backed out. Read more about Edwards' festive homecoming in this story by CBC Sports' Myles Dichter. | | | And finally… | | | Jaromir Jagr is still going.
The 51-year-old (!) hockey legend began his 36th (!) professional season last night with an assist for his hometown Kladno Knights in their 4-3 loss to Czech league-leading Pardubice. Jagr, who owns the Knights, sat out their first 25 games before logging close to 14 minutes of ice time in his season debut.
Jagr last played in the NHL in 2018 for Calgary. He scored five times in 26 games last season for Kladno and broke Wayne Gretzky's obscure record of 1,098 combined goals in professional leagues and senior-level international tournaments. 844 of Jagr's goals came in NHL regular-season and playoff games, and the rest in various European leagues and international events like the Olympics, World Cups and world championships.
Jagr is a surefire future Hockey Hall of Famer, but last night's game delayed his eligibility by another year, to at least 2027. | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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