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Spyder support ski team with $4 million over four years

Spyder Active Sports has announced more than $4 million in new sponsorship for the Canadian Alpine Ski Team, extending a previous agreement that ran out in 2007 to 2011.

In addition to funding, the company will supply the Canadian team and national racing program with suits, outerwear and funding through the 2006 and 2010 Winter Games.

"Spyder supported us when we started rebuilding and it will be great to have them around to see the results of their strong commitment to alpine racing in Canada," said Fernie’s Emily Brydon, a member of the national team.

Canmore’s Thomas Grandi, one of the top slalom skiers on the World Cup, added "Their suits are fast. First the Americans used them, and then us, and now even the Austrians are using Spyder."

Spyder’s roots are in the Canadian program. The company’s founder and current CEO David Jacobs was the Canadian downhill skiing champion in 1957 with the national team. He also served as a coach for the organization from 1964 to 1966, and started Spyder at his kitchen table in Boulder, Colorado in 1978.

Kleenex newest ski team sponsor

Real estate is getting tight on the uniforms of members of Canadian Alpine Ski Team, with Alpine Canada Alpin inking several new sponsors in recent years in addition to companies like Spyder, CIBC, Pontiac GMC and Telus. There’s always room for one more however, especially when it’s a product that members of the team use anyway.

Last week the ACA announced Kleenex Tissue as the "official tissue supplier for the Canadian Alpine Ski Team". The agreement provides the ACA with an undisclosed amount of financial support this season and through 2006, with an option to renew.

In a strange twist, the announcement came one day before Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council initiated a campaign against Kimberly-Clark, the parent company of Kleenex. Greenpeace is alleging that Kimberly-Clark is destroying old-growth forests to make toilet paper and facial tissue.

Injury claims development team skier

Jennah Durham of Timmins, Ontario, a skier with the national development team, ended her season early after a bad crash during a slalom training run in Nakiska. She was operated on immediately after the accident and had a rod inserted in her broken tibia to speed up the healing. However, she is expected to miss most of the season, and will spend most of the winter rehabilitating her injury. She will be reassessed over the winter, but team doctors believe it will take three to six months before she will be back on snow.

This is Jennah’s second year with the development team. She was 13 th in the 2003 Pontiac GMC Canadian Championships and has two top-30 results on the Europa Cup circuit.