Cassie Sharpe, a gold and silver medalist at the last two Olympics, is taking a break from ski halfpipe.
“I’ve made the decision to take some much needed *me* time, you could say a small sabbatical, this year to relax after a crazy Olympic cycle,” she posted. “But don’t worry you’ll see me in a bib again one day soon!!”
Sharpe, a 30-year-old Canadian, did not specify how long she plans to sit out.
Sharpe, whose last internationally sanctioned competition was last year’s Olympics, is not on the athlete list for this week’s Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado, where she could have faced off against reigning Olympic champion Eileen Gu of China.
Last year, she took silver behind Gu at the Olympics, competing one year after ACL surgery and a broken femur. Sharpe took the early lead with an 89-point run, but Gu followed with 93.25 points in her opener. Sharpe increased her score in her second and third runs, but it wasn’t enough to overtake the favorite Gu.
In 2018, Sharpe was one of the most dominant athletes across the PyeongChang Olympics. She took four halfpipe runs of consequence between qualifying and finals, and they were the four highest scores of the entire competition. Her fifth run, the very last of the final, was a victory lap with gold already clinched.
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