Sochi Olympics: France sweeps men’s freestyle ski cross

SOCHI, Russia – The fab threesome of U.S. freeskiers Joss Christensen, Gus Kenworthy and Nick Goepper landed on the cover of a limited edition of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes cereal box after sweeping the slopestyle podium.

Now that the French trio of ski cross racers -- gold-medalist Jean Frederic Chapuis, silver-medalist Arnaud Bovolenta and bronze-medalist Jonathan Midol swept the Olympic podium -- what does that mean for their commercial futures in France?

Will it be adverts for Nutella, the popular chocolate hazelnut spread? Or something sport specific?

Midol, 26, the oldest of the three on the podium, is hoping for a bit more coverage of his sport.

“It’s my first podium,” said the Midol said. “First podium for Arnaud too. We are not like every World Cup at the top. I hope it is getting better. It is not so big in France.

“They are some pretty good results before … but it’s not so [big]. There is no channel, just Eurosport 2. No audience. So I hope it is getting better.”

Midol’s younger brother, Bastien, was in his thoughts Thursday at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. Bastien, 23, crashed in a ski-cross race in December at San Candido, Italy. He had been considered a contender as well, having taken a silver medal at the World Championships in 2013 at Voss, Norway.

“He’s doing well,” Midol said. “He has no pain. He crashed very bad. … Yesterday, he sent me a text. I had so much thinking about him during the race.”

The four-skier final featured the three French racers and Canadian Brady Leman, who is from Calgary. Leman, a former alpine racer made the switch to ski cross in 2008, and suffered a broken leg a day before he was scheduled to compete at the Olympics in Vancouver.

He didn’t get the start he wanted and fell late in the race, jockeying for position. The only American in the field, John Teller, of Mammoth, fell in the first knockout heat and did not advance.

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