Two Whistler skiers and one coach have been named to Team Canada for the upcoming Whistler Cup 2001 races from Apr. 6 to 8. Alpine Canada Alpin (ACA), the national sanctioning body for ski racing in Canada, named ten athletes and four coaches on Apr. 4, taking into account results in provincial, national and international juvenile races.
In the K1 category (ages 11 and 12) the two women are Marie-Pier Prefontaine of Chanteclerc, Quebec, and Stephanie New of Edmonton’s Snow Valley Ski Club. The two men are Tyler Nella and Mathew Holler, both members of the Whistler Valley Ski Club.
In the K2 category, the women are Shona Rubens of Lake Louise, Alberta, and Anna Goodman and Andree-Ann Levoie of Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. The men are Luis Philippe Therrien of Mont-Tremblant, Francis Fortin-Houle of Val St. Come, and Louis-Pierre Helie, all of Quebec.
The four coaches are Francis Brunet of Mont-Tremblant, Tom Penney of Lake Louise, Sead Causevic of Whisler, and Wayne Howard of Georgian Peak, Ontario. Christian Femy, the ACA’s athletic domestic development director, will serve as the team’s captain.
More than 300 of the world’s best 11 to 14 year old skiers will be in Whistler to race in the 9 th Sierra Wireless Air Canada Whistler Cup, racing for personal glory and for their teams. Although Team Canada has finished in the top three of the competition on five occasions, they have yet to win at home.
Of the 26 members of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team, 24 racers have competed in the Whistler Cup, an event that is on par with the international juvenile race in Trofeo Topolino, Italy, held in February.
Look for a strong Italian Team in Whistler, after the group captured four out of the eight medals. The other medals were shared by the U.S., Canada, Austria and Slovenia.
