After a meteoric rise in the world rankings, Kelowna skier misses shot at the podium by the smallest of margins 

BY LORI CULBERT, VANCOUVER SUN

Brad Serwa was on his feet, clapping wildly, chanting "keep going, keep going" under his breath as his daughter Kelsey flew down the course at Cypress.

Just 20 years old, the Kelowna native seemed poised to get a spot in the final of the first women's ski-cross competition in Olympic history.

And then, "Oh no!" Brad yelled, as Kelsey mistimed a jump, slowed and was edged out by a ski tip at the finish line. Kelsey's mom, Terri, looked on in disbelief.

Kelsey ended up third in her heat, with just the top two advancing to the final.

She came back to win the small final to finish fifth while her teammate, Ashleigh McIvor, won gold.

"I'm really proud of her," Terri said afterward. "It was a half a breath that she lost that semifinal by, it was so close, so close. I spoke to her right after the race. I just gave her a hug and told her how proud I was of her. She was still smiling from ear to ear. She's having a great time."

Serwa's rise in the entertaining, fast-paced event has been meteoric.

She grew up on the slopes -- her grandfather, Cliff Serwa, was a co-founder of Kelowna's Big White Ski Resort while both her parents work for the International Ski Federation -- and until two years ago, her focus was on alpine skiing.

But in early 2008, after a disappointing finish, she phoned her mother with unexpected news.

"She said, 'I'm really not happy with my skiing this year, so I'm jumping to ski cross. You always said I should have a backup plan,'" her mom recalled. "I said, 'University was to be your backup plan.' She said, 'Mom, I can always go to university but I can't always go to the Olympics.'"

For many parents, the hair-raising sport -- in which four skiers battle each other at high speeds as they fly over jumps and careen around curves -would cause a lot of sleepless nights. But the Serwas know the ski world well, and they were confident in their daughter's skills.

The 2009 season was her first year on the World Cup circuit. Kelsey entered her first race, in Austria, ranked 67th. She entered the Olympics ranked third in the world.

While she was disappointed she didn't reach the podium at Cypress, she's already set her sights on competing in the next Winter Games.

"When I was going up on the chair to the small final I was thinking, 'Oh crap, now I've got to wait another four years to get on that podium,'" she said. "I wanted to be in the final with Ashleigh, but I did the best I could. I won the small final and that's the best I could do in that situation."

After the event, her father said his daughter, nicknamed K-Ser, gave the race everything she had.

"We were cheering her on. She nailed all the starts and she just [missed] one jump. That's how close it was. One jump that the two other girls got past her and she just couldn't catch up," he said. "But we're very proud of her, very happy. And [Canada] did get a gold. This is groundbreaking history."

If the raucous response from the packed crowd at Cypress was any indication, then the fast-paced event will become an Olympic favourite. Friends and family of McIvor and Serwa were seated beside each other in the bleachers and waved banners, rang cowbells and chanted loudly for all four Canadian women in the race.

"Just to get this far so young is so remarkable,'' her mother said. "It's like: Pinch me. Are we really here? It's remarkable. She is only 20. She has a lot more [competitions] ahead of her."