Georgina Simmerling's pain is Tiana Gairns's gain.
And that could mean Prince George will have four athletes at the Winter Olympics next month in Pyeongchang, South Korea,
Simmerling, of West Vancouver, was fourth in the world standings and a shoe-in for Canada's Olympic ski cross team when she broke both legs in a fall in the semifinal round Saturday in a World Cup race in Nakiska, Alta., the final race before the Olympics.
That opened the door for the 19-year-old Gairns.
She was named an alternate to the four-female, four-male Olympic team announced Monday in Calgary. Gairns will remain in Canada and will only make the trip to Pyeongchang if one of the four women gets sick or injured and is unable to compete.
"It came as a complete surprise, they actually had to put in a special request because I didn't have enough World Cup starts to meet the criteria to qualify for the Olympics," said Gairns.
In her World Cup debut Saturday at Nakiska, Gairns finished a surprising sixth, among six Canadians who placed in the top-10. She placed second in the small final.
Gairns didn't know she was an Olympic alternate until she rode the chair lift for her first training run for a North American Cup race at Nakiska on Monday, when national team member Matt Leduc broke the news.
"He had to pull out the article to show what was going on, I was pretty excited," said Gairns. "I didn't know what an alternate was and when I got down to the bottom, nobody really knew. It took me awhile to figure out that I'm not going to Korea but I'll be on standby and if someone gets hurt someone will give me a call and I'll be on the plane the next day."
The women's ski cross event is scheduled for the third weekend of the Olympics on Friday, Feb. 23.
"Hopefully they won't need me," said Gairns. "I'm honoured that they chose me an alternate and if I get to go Korea and actually race, that will be a whole other experience. I'm pretty satisfied with letting the people named to the team go.
"They have chances to get Olympic podiums and I've only raced one World Cup so they are more likely to do well. I'll come in four years, in China, that's my goal and watch out for me then."
If she does get that call next month, Gairns would represent Prince George along with biathletes Megan Tandy, 29, and Sarah Beaudry, 23. Snowboard crosser Meryeta O'Dine, 20, is expected to be named to the Olympic team today in Calgary. She will be racing a World Cup event next week in Bansko, Bulgaria.
Gairns, part of the NextGen team, said she was extremely nervous before her first World Cup start but once she started down the course that was all forgotten. She qualified ninth, finished second in the quarterfinal, fourth in the semifinal and was second in the small final.
"The coaches were telling me to take big breaths and that's all I could think about, but once you're on the course it's just like any other race, the hardest part was just standing at the start," she said. "The crowd at the bottom at the finish line was amazing."
Kelsey Serwa of Kelowna and Kevin Drury of Toronto were the top Canadians, each placing fourth. Both made the Olympic team list. The other Canadian Olympic team members are: Women - Brittany Phelan, Mont-Tremblant, Que; India Sherret, Cranbrook; Marielle Thompson, Whistler; Men - Chris Del Bosco, Montreal; Brady Leman, Calgary; and David Duncan, London, Ont. Ian Dearns of Kelowna is the male team alternate. Thompson tore her ACL and meniscus in a training run accident in October and has made a quick recovery,
Gairns didn't see Simmerling's crash. She knows the inherent hazards of her sport with four racers at a time descending a steep mountain slope over rollers and huge jumps but says it's not as dangerous as it appears.
"It looks like we're way more out of control than we feel ourselves," Gairns said. "We realize that crashing is part of it but we also train a lot to crash with minimal impact. We do air awareness training and lot of strength and conditioning stuff that is supposed help us in a situation like that."
Coming off a second-place Nor-Am season finish in 2015-16, two concussions limited Gairns to just a month of racing last season but she's felt no symptoms since March.
Gairns, a Kelly Road secondary school graduate, is now attending the University of Calgary, working on an arts degree. She's taking just two courses but says it's hard to keep up to the workload because she travels so much. She will be in Kimberley this weekend for a speed camp.
News of her Olympic team accomplishment thrilled Gairns's parents in Prince George, Sandra and Stuart.
"Yes, very proud," said Stuart, in an email to the Citizen. "Good to see her enjoying success after a rough year last year."
Gairns is a product of the Prince George Alpine Ski Team club program and has been a dominant force again on the NorAm tour this season. She ranks second in the overall standings with 140 points, 60 behind leader Reina Umehara of Japan.
At Nakiska, Gairns finished second in a NorAm race on Sunday and was third on Monday. Umehara won both races. Gairns's 17-year-old brother Lucas also raced the NorAm events at Nakiska, finishing 18th on Sunday and 23rd on Monday.
Gavin Rowell of Prince George, 18, who also cut his teeth racing with the Prince George Alpine Ski Team and now races alpine events with the Alberta team, placed 15th on Monday and 17th on Sunday. Austin Boehm of Williams Lake, was 31st and 33rd.
