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Canadian athletes: full speed ahead to 2014

Athletes win four crystal globes, several World Championships
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rIddle me This Mike Riddle was one of Canada's World Cup standouts this winter. file photo

The 2013 World Cup season wrapped up last week, and while the total haul of medals and titles was down slightly compared to 2012, there's also no denying that Canada's future prospects look good.

Vancouver and London both showed how much funding athletes boosts results at the highest level, and on that score Canada has been nothing short of aggressive. In January, the Government of Canada announced a funding boost of $31 million for 11 winter sports organizations in the run-up to the 2014 Games in Sochi, plus another $6.9 million for athletes through Sport Canada's Athlete Assistance Program. That's on top of current funding through Sport Canada and Own the Podium, which contributed $21.7 million to winter sports through the 2012-2013 season.

In Canada, you need to have success to get funding with Own the Podium and others backing sports that have proven medal potential over sports that aren't as developed. As a result the Canadian Freestyle Ski Team got over $2.4 million last season from Own the Podium while Ski Jumping Canada received just $100,000.

Canada has a number of favourites going into 2014. In the overall end-of-season rankings, Canada won four Crystal Globes: mogul skier Mikael Kingsbury won the overall freestyle and moguls globes for the second straight year, Mike Riddle won the men's ski halfpipe globe and Dominique Maltais won the snowboardcross globe.

As well, the women's bobsleigh team of Kaillie Humphries and Chelsea Valois was on the podium at every event last season, winning six races, and had the title in the bag long before the season was even over. On the men's side, the two-man team piloted by Lyndon Rush with various brakemen also ranked first overall.

In ski slopestyle, Kaya Turski continued to dominate on the pro circuit, Dara Howell emerged as a strong medal contender and Pemberton's Yuki Tsubota — in only her second year competing slopestyle — is having a breakout season of all breakout seasons. Coming into the AFP World Championships in Whistler, the three girls are ranked first, second and fifth in the world.

Once again, freestyle was a highlight for Canada, as the team claimed the overall Nations Cup title for the eighth straight year and ninth time in 10 years. In addition to Kingsbury's two Crystal Globes, Alex Bilodeau — the current Olympic champion — caught fire at the end of the season and won the last two contests. In women's moguls, the U.S. team is dominating right now and Japan had its best season, but Canada has four strong prospects with the team that are capable of making the podium — sisters Chloe and Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Audrey Robichaud combined for eight medals.

Aerialist Oliver Rochon struggled the first part of his season, won a bronze medal and then was injured, but Travis Gerrits picked up where he left off and picked up two silver medals this season.

Snowboarding was another highlight.

In snowboard slopestyle, which is making its Olympic debut in 2014, Canada has some of the top athletes in the world right now. Mark McMorris won the overall TTR World Snowboard Tour rankings this year, while teammates Sebastien Toutant (winner at Euro X Games) and Maxence Parrot were ranked sixth and seventh. Darcy Sharpe, who trains with the Whistler Valley Snowboard Club, is ranked 12th on the global list, and has a good chance at qualifying for the 2014 Games as well.

For the women, North Vancouver's Spencer O'Brien finished the season ranked second overall, and won the U.S. Open.

In snowboardcross, Maltais's Crystal Globe wasn't the only highlight, as Maëlle Ricker, the defending Olympic champion, won the World Championship title in Quebec in January. Chris Robanske won two medals on the men's side.

The men's alpine snowboard team struggled this past season, but Matthew Morison regained the podium for the first time in two seasons with a silver medal, while Caroline Calvé earned three medals — one of each colour — to place third overall in parallel slalom. Ariane Lavigne earned her first career podium with a bronze medal.

But while Canada has solid medal contenders in a number of sports — including off-snow sports like speed skating, hockey and curling, 2012-2013 was a tough year for several teams.

Alpine team in a slump

The Canadian Alpine Ski Team managed just three podiums this past season, two in the downhill by Erik Guay and one in the slalom by Erin Mielzynsi — that's less than half the seven medals won by the team the previous season.

The team does have several solid prospects, and several athletes were returning from injury, but the team is arguably in a bit of a slump overall.

The Canadian Ski Cross Team also slumped this past season, relatively speaking, although you could argue it's still pretty strong. Whistler's Marielle Thompson had trouble qualifying for the race brackets in the first half of the season after winning the overall Crystal Globe the previous season. She made a huge comeback in the second half, and finished with two silver medals, including a critical one at the World Championships. The rest of the team had good results — Kelsey Serwa earned two golds and a silver, Brady Leman won two silver medals, and Tristan Tafel, Chris DelBosco and Georgia Simmerling each added a silver medal. The bad news is that Serwa reinjured her knee for the second straight season while DelBosco was injured in training and missed more than half of the races.

Cross-country athletes fall short

Cross-Country was also a disappointment after the last breakout season in 2011-2012 when athletes combined to win a record 15 medals. This season the team earned five medals: Alex Harvey won a bronze at the world championship and a bronze at the Tour de Ski, Len Valjas won silver and bronze medals at the Tour de Ski, and Perianne Jones and Daria Gaiazova combined to win a World Cup medal in a team sprint race — at the 2014 Olympic venue, no less.

Naturally the medals don't tell the entire story. Devon Kershaw, who placed second overall on the World Cup tour in the 2012 season, didn't earn a single podium. Meanwhile, Ivan Babikov seemed to have shaken off his own slump from the previous year, and posted his best results in years.

Biathlon emerges after almost two decades

Biathlon Canada, which has not had a podium in close to 20 years since Myriam Bedard earned two gold medals in Lillehammer, was finally on the board this year with Jean-Philippe Le Guellec winning a gold medal this season at a men's sprint race. He has been back in the top 10 several times since, while his teammates have been steadily improving as well.

Now Biathlon Canada is expecting to see more funding in recognition of their results, and are looking to be a medal contender by the 2014 Games.

Sliding sports healthy

In the sliding sports, Humphries and Rush aren't the only pilots winning medals. Alex Gough earned three bronze medals in luge this past season, while the luge relay team — Sam Edney, Alex Gough and the tandem of Tristan Walker and Justin Snith — earned two silvers and a bronze.

In the sport of skeleton, Sarah Reid won a gold and two silver medals and Mellisa Hollingsworth was second twice.

Christopher Spring piloted his team to a bronze medal in four-man bobsleigh this season, earning his first World Cup podium.

The numbers game

Going into the 2014 Games in Sochi, the official goal is to go for number one overall and, if not, to at least match Canada's tally of 26 medals from the Vancouver Games in 2010. Canadians placed first on the gold medal list with 14, while finishing third in overall medals.

It's going to be tough, but Canada has a few things going for it — strong hockey, figure skating and curling teams, the top freestyle team in the world once again, and new events that favour Canadian athletes (ski halfpipe, ski and snowboard slopestyle, snowboard parallel slalom, team luge and a team figure skate event).

In the overall tally of World Championship medals Canada placed second to Norway with 32 meals. Canadians also won 12 medals in world championship competition while Norway, a powerhouse in Nordic sports, won 17. Canada has won 140 total medals on the World Cup circuit this past season for all sports, finishing third to Germany and the U.S.

As well, Canadians generally placed well at the test events in Sochi, Russia and will be familiar with the courses when the Games get underway in February 2014.