Music: {allcanada} CRYSTAL GLOBE WINNER THOMPSON HEADLINES CANADIAN SKI CROSS TEAM ROSTER

Thursday, May 30, 2013

{allcanada} CRYSTAL GLOBE WINNER THOMPSON HEADLINES CANADIAN SKI CROSS TEAM ROSTER

CALGARY -- Crystal Globe winner Marielle Thompson and veteran racers Chris Del Bosco, Brady Leman and Kelsey Serwa headline the Canadian ski cross team roster for the 2013-'14 season.

"We're coming into this season with a very strong team that includes some of the best ski cross racers in the world as well as a new wave of athletes who have great potential," Canada Ski Cross athletic director Dave Ellis said Thursday in a release. "Our goal is to get back to being No. 1 in the world and we want to have a man and a woman on the podium in Sochi.

"With the team we have announced for 2013-14, we feel very positive about our chances of achieving those goals."

Del Bosco, from Montreal, and Leman, from Calgary, are joined on the men's team by Louis-Pierre Helie of Berthierville, Que., Ian Deans of Kelowna, B.C., Mathieu Leduc of Comox, B.C., Dave Duncan of London, Ont., and Tristan Tafel of Canmore, Alta.

Thompson, from Whistler, B.C., and Serwa, from Kelowna, are joined on the women's team by Georgia Simmerling of West Vancouver, B.C., and Danielle Sundquist of Calgary.

The season-opening World Cup races are in Nakiska, Alta., on Dec. 7 and the deadline for Olympic team nomination is Jan. 21, 2014. Thompson is the only Canadian ski cross racer who has provisionally pre-qualified.

The Canadian team finished third in the Nations' Cup standings last season behind Switzerland and France after previously winning the team World Cup title for four successive years.