Cassie Sharpe collects X Games superpipe bronze after breaking thumb

Cassie Sharpe will carry momentum into her Olympic debut next month.

After suffering a broken thumb in Thursday night's first run of the ladies superpipe at the X Games in Aspen, Colo., the Comox, B.C., freestyle skier re-injured it later in the competition but managed a third-place finish ahead of her Winter Olympics debut.

• Cassie Sharpe earns World Cup ski halfpipe gold
• Own the Podium's Anne Merklinger on Canada's Olympic medal hopes

Cassie Sharpe on X Games bronze: 'I fell and I broke my thumb first run'

7 years ago

Duration 1:34

The 25-year-old talked about how she rebounded to make the podium with a broken thumb and her expectations for the upcoming Olympic Games.

"I tried doing my most difficult run first," said Sharpe in a statement released by Freestyle Canada. "My last jump was a cork 10 and I broke my thumb again.

"For my second run, I was still a little shaken. But for the third run, I was back on track and managed to focus on what I needed to do."

Sharpe, 25, broke her thumb at the end of Thursday's first run and sported a splint for the remainder of the competition.

• Sharpe has golden start to World Cup freeski season

It is her fourth podium of the season and second X Games medal.

The 2015 world silver medallist hasn't had much luck in the health department at Aspen, where Sharpe unknowingly competed with a stress fracture in her back and placed fourth at her X Games debut in January 2016.

Cassie Sharpe wins X Games bronze in ski superpipe

7 years ago

Duration 2:04

Canadian finishes 3rd in Aspen with a score of 88.66 points.

A month later, she won X Games gold in Oslo while wearing a back brace.

Last March, Sharpe broke a thumb in qualifying at a World Cup event in Tignes, France, where she won gold and became the first woman to ever land a switch cork 720 in competition.

Healing time

She opened this season with a win in Cardrona, New Zealand, and earlier this month stood atop the podium in Snowmass, Colo. Sharpe had won gold in between at the Dew Tour.

• Sharpe wins superpipe gold at Dew Tour

Sharpe will have some time to heal this time around before the ladies halfpipe qualifications in Pyeonchang on Feb. 19, followed by the final the next day.

Elsewhere Thursday, Mike Riddle of Sherwood Park, Alta., led a trio of top-10 halfpipe finishes by Canadian men with a fourth-place finish, narrowly missing his first X games medal in 12 years. Calgary's Noah Bowman was sixth and Simon d'Artois of Whistler, B.C., seventh.​

Mike Riddle: 'I gonna do my best to represent Canada and bring home a gold'

7 years ago

Duration 1:36

Riddle spoke about getting a second chance to represent his country on the world stage.