REVIEW-Olympics-Freestyle-Canada's golden glow lights up freestyle

By Philip O'Connor ROSA KHUTOR, Russia, Feb 24 (Reuters) - With its combination of high speed, "sick" tricks, close finishes and some horrendous injuries, freestyle skiing provided some of the most compelling action at the Sochi Olympics. Canada came out on top with a stunning haul of nine Olympic medals in the freestyle events - four gold, four silver and one bronze - after a dominant display at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. On Friday, they finished the freestyle programme as they started it, with Marielle Thompson and Kelsey Serwa's one-two in the women's ski cross echoing the moguls triumph of the Dufour Lapointe sisters, Justine and Chloe, almost two weeks earlier. Canada's Olympic campaign also saw men's moguls skier Alex Bilodeau become the first free skier to retain an Olympic title when he led compatriot Mikael Kingsbury in another one-two after an exhilarating final run. Snowboarding superpower America also put up a strong showing in freestyle skiing, collecting seven medals overall with clean-cut family man David Wise standing out from the dudes to take the inaugural halfpipe gold. Women's champion Maddie Bowman presented a more traditional extreme sports image, sporting a nose ring during her victorious runs down the 200-metre tube of packed snow. Joss Christensen led Gus Kenworthy and Nick Goepper to only a third Winter Games podium sweep for the U.S. to win the first Olympic gold in the men's slopestyle. Despite sending a strong squad to Sochi, the Chinese aerials team flopped again on the Olympic stage, allowing Anton Kushnir and Alla Tsuper to claim the gold medals for Belarus. Even with two representatives in each final, China only managed a silver medal for Xu Mengtao as runner-up to Tsuper and a bronze for Jia Zongyang in the men's event. There was a stunning success for France too, when Jean Frederic Chapuis, Arnaud Bovolenta and Jonathan Midol swept the podium in the men's ski cross. They kept their after when a protest from Canada and Slovenia that they had worn illegal suits to gain an aerodynamic advantage in the final was dismissed. Although all free skiers see the risks as an integral, unavoidable part of extreme sports, there were a number of sickening injuries. The worst of these befell Russian ski cross athlete Maria Komissarova, who required lengthy surgery after a suffering a fracture and dislocation of the spine in a training crash. Apart from Komissarova's catastrophic fall there were plenty of delays in competition as athletes were treated for a variety of knee injuries, concussions, cuts and bruises. Even the spectacular success of Canada was tinged with regret over the absence of Sarah Burke, the freestyle pioneer who died following a training accident in 2012. Burke was a driving force in freestyle skiing and instrumental in the inclusion of the halfpipe and slopestyle events in Sochi. Despite athletes being prohibited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from bearing stickers commemorating Burke on their helmets, athletes from all corners of the world spoke of feeling her presence in Sochi. "She was with me today. I totally felt her. She's amazing and I'm happy to honor who she was by doing this today," Canadian slopestyler Kim Lamarre told Reuters after taking bronze behind compatriot Dara Howell. "Before I dropped my last run in the final, I looked up to the sky and said 'come on Sarah, we can do this together. Carry me through down.'" Many others made heart shapes with their fingers or pointed to the sky as they waited for their scores. If the inclusion of slopestyle and halfpipe at the Games is to be Burke's legacy, it looks like being a successful one. Included to attract a younger demographic to the Games, the events were watched by vocal, appreciative audiences packed into the stands at the Caucasus mountain venue. "This was her life's goal," Burke's mother Jan Phelan told Reuters as she watched the women's halfpipe event. "Half of it was getting this here. That's a dream come true right there." (Editing by Nick Mulvenney)