Medals are still hard to come by for the Canadian Alpine Ski Team, but both of the Janyk siblings made breakthroughs at World Cup events last weekend.
Mike Janyk came away with a ceremonial cowbell for his fifth place finish in the slalom at Adelboden, Switzerland, his best result this season. He struggled in two past races - in Val d'Isere he was sitting ninth after the first run, then straddled a gate in his second run to post a DNF; in Zagreb, he made the wrong ski choice and just missed qualifying for a second run by nine one-hundredths of a second.
But all was well in Adelboden.
"I went out to attack," said Janyk. "I've built my career on attacking and fighting and that's what I wanted to come back to.
"The second run was a total battle. I fought the whole way - nothing came easy. I really liked my push today. I just want to put that in the bank and keep it going."
The rest of the team was solid, with Brad Spence placing 17th and Trevor White in 20th.
The win went to Ivica Kostelic of Croatia, followed my Marcel Hirscher and Reinfried Herbst of Austria.
There was also a giant slalom the previous day, but none of the Canadians qualified. Cyprien Richard of France took the gold, followed by Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and Thomas Fanara of France.
The women's speed team also raced last weekend, with a downhill and super G at Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria.
Britt Janyk led the team on both days. In the downhill she was 15th and in the super G moved up to ninth. While that's still shy of where she wants to be, Janyk was encouraged after the weekend.
"My confidence is getting back to where it should be and we made adjustments to my equipment right after Lake Louise, so I feel better on my skis," she said. "We had good training in the past weeks and right now I just need to trust my skis, try to have fun and race hard."
American Lindsey Vonn won the downhill by almost half a second over Anja Paerson of Sweden. Anna Fenninger of Austria was third. None of the other Canadians finished in the top 30 so didn't earn any points.
In the super G, Lara Gut of Switzerland took the top spot, followed by Lindsey Vonn and Dominique Gisin of Switzlerland. Janyk was less than half a second back of the top five.
"I had an early bib today which can be good because the track is clean, but that also means that you don't get a report so you really need to trust your inspection," she said.
"It was a tight race and I'm definitely going in the right direction, as I am now counting the hundredths of seconds, and not the seconds, between me and the leader."
This was the first super G of the season, after the two previous races were cancelled due to the weather.
Marie-Michele Gagnon placed 30th for Canada.
The bad news for the team is that injuries are continuing to pile up. In the past week it was announced that Whistler's Robbie Dixon was feeling the effects of a crash in Bormio and would miss Wengen, and that Francois Bourque was out to get more surgery on a knee injury. Both are expected to return, although there's no word on when. Erik Guay will also miss Wegen with a sore back.
The injury list for Alpine Canada is long, with Kelly VanderBeek, John Kucera, Louis-Pierre Helie and Kelly McBroom already on the sidelines. Both Kucera and VanderBeek were injured last season and are expected to return this year.
In Para-Alpine, sit skier Josh Dueck earned his first World Cup podium in giant slalom with a second place finish at Arta Terme, Italy. He was fourth in the first GS two days earlier.
Karolina Wisniewska placed third in the women's standing category on two days of racing. Chris Williamson and guide Robin Femy were first on day one, and second on day two in the men's visually impaired category.
Morgan Perrin and Matt Hallat were fifth and eighth in the men's standing on day one, but were DNFs on the second day. Kirk Shonstein, a DNF on day one, was 10th on day two.
In other ski team news, the Canadian Alpine Ski Team and Canadian Forces have teamed up on an initiative to recognize veterans and soldiers serving on the frontlines. Starting this weekend, the team will wear yellow ribbon decals with the words "Support Our Troops."
"Sometimes I feel a little bit funny being called a hero when you know people are out there putting their lives on the line," said downhiller Jan Hudec. "Downhill skiing is a dangerous sport but the men and women serving in the Canadian Forces do a very selfless job that's extremely high risk. I will be very proud to wear the yellow ribbon and hope the valuable work done by the Forces will be acknowledged by all Canadians."
