Canada's Schmidt siblings are the best surprise of the ski season

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Nine days after scoring their first career victories just minutes apart, Canadian ski cross siblings Jared and Hannah Schmidt both reached the World Cup podium again.

Jared won today's men's event in northern Italy for his third consecutive gold, right after his older sister Hannah raced to the women's bronze for her second straight medal. She now sits third in the women's World Cup standings while her brother has opened up a massive lead in the men's chase over defending champion and fellow Canadian Reece Howden, who finished eighth today.

No one saw this coming for the Ottawa siblings. Heading into the season opener in France earlier this month, Hannah, 29, had just one World Cup medal to her name — a silver from last December. She placed seventh at the 2022 Winter Olympics, where she was eliminated from medal contention in the semifinals (after a qualifying run, ski crossers race in groups of four, with the top two advancing to the next round). In her two appearances at the world championships, she finished 10th and 19th.

WATCH | Jared Schmidt makes it 3 wins in a row:

Jared, 26, owned a couple of World Cup bronze medals, but he failed to reach the podium in all 12 of his World Cup starts last season. He finished 10th at the 2022 Olympics and 17th at last year's world championships — his only appearances in the majors.

But Jared has owned the World Cup tour this season almost from the get-go. After failing to make the quarterfinals in the opening competition in France, he won gold the next day at the same venue to kick off his current winning streak.

The sweetest