Baur finishes third on the podium in Veysonnaz

The Swiss from the Black Forest finished third for the fourth time in his career. Canadian Reece Howden seemed to be on his way to his fourth World Cup victory in a row, but was caught by Frenchman Youri Duplessis-Kergomard on the home straight.

The four Swiss women, led by Fanny Smith, were all eliminated in the quarter-finals. Meanwhile, Sweden's Sandra Näslund celebrated her 44th World Cup triumph.

The race had started with a scary moment. In the first round of 16, Alex Fiva crashed heavily with two other colleagues. As the fastest qualifier, the man from Graubünden received a yellow card for the incident, but remained uninjured. The race had to be interrupted for a quarter of an hour to repair the safety fences.

Ryan Regez, Fiva and Baur are likely to be seeded for the Olympic Games. Jonas Lenherr, Romain Détraz, Sandro Lohner and Gilles Martin are now fighting for the last place. Of these candidates, Détraz has lifted himself into pole position by reaching the semi-finals (8th place).

In the women's event, Fanny Smith, Talina Gantenbein and Saskja Lack can look forward to the deadline without too much pressure with a view to an Olympic ticket. Sixtine Cousin and Isabelle Zippert are still fighting for the last ticket. The former was eliminated in the quarter-finals and the latter missed out on the knockout rounds.

The skicross team has not competed in the World Cup since Christmas because the races in Alleghe, Italy, in mid-January were canceled. Only the sixth World Cup race this winter took place in Veysonnaz on Friday. A second race is scheduled for Saturday in Valais, and the Olympic team will be officially announced on Monday.