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Whistler skiers get back to work

Alpine athletes put 2010 Games behind them, focus on results
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The World Cup alpine racing season is a grind - from summer months spent training in gyms and on southern hemisphere slopes while the rest of us are drinking beer on patios, segueing into five-plus winter months spent racing and travelling around the globe. It's become such a serious business that most athletes can measure their time off from the sport in weeks, sacrificing almost everything just to have a shot to finish on the podium.

And while the 2010-2011 season may seem like a back-to-normal year for athletes after the Olympic Games, the reality is the pressure never lets up - 2011 is a world championship year, which is crucial for Canadian athletes seeking/renewing Sport Canada funding. As well, the athletes have high expectations for themselves and only a limited number of years to accomplish their goals.

All four Whistler athletes are returning to the Canadian Alpine Ski Team this season - Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Robbie Dixon are back with the men's speed team, Britt Janyk is back with the women's speed team and Michael Janyk is returning to the men's technical team.

All four athletes were in Whistler on Tuesday to take part in a Peak to Peak Gala dinner at the Roundhouse Lodge. Pique managed to catch up with three out of four of them by phone.

 

Mike Janyk - Becoming "the" guy

For Michael Janyk, the Olympics were a learning experience of sorts, but the biggest teaching moment of the 2009-2010 season was teammate Erik Guay winning the overall super G title.

"It was massive for us," he said. "It seemed to get swept under the rug a bit with the whole Olympic thing, but for us on the team... that was the biggest thing I've ever been involved in within Canadian ski racing. Any European will tell you the crystal globe is a big deal, it's the Stanley Cup.

"And it hasn't happened since 1982, and it's only the third one (for Canada) after Steve Podborski and Nancy Greene."

Another teaching moment was John Kucera's downhill win in the 2009 World Championships.

"We could all say, 'we won a World Championship,' and it's no coincidence that I saw my (bronze world championship) medal a few days later. Now, when we're together as a team, we can be amongst each other and know that we are the best. When you hang around the best, it raises the game for everyone else."

Janyk says he's even more driven since the Olympics, despite a disappointing result in the men's slalom.

"The result wasn't what I wanted or what I looked forward to, but I didn't want (the Games) to come and go without learning anything from them," he said. "I learned a lot about myself... and it's given me the confidence to move forward and with even more drive for the years to come."

For Janyk that means moving up the ladder once again.

"I've had a few seasons where I've been consistently in the top 10. I need to make that next step which is competing for the podium every week. That's it," he said. "I had our top sixes last year and top fives where I've been just off the podium. And I want to make that next step where I'm winning. And not a one-off win, but in contention for the podium every weekend.

"I always wanted that before, but before the Olympics were always in the back of my mind, while now it's a clear goal of being the top guy."

Off-season training for Janyk has been a little different, joining the technical team for a month-long training camp in New Zealand in July and training in North Vancouver instead of Calgary - following a program from the national team, but working beside athletes from other sports like Maëlle Ricker. One of his Swiss sponsors even brought him to Europe for an outdoor music festival, after which point Janyk spent a week training beside German slalom star Felix Neureuther.

Janyk has also ratcheted up his mental training, which he says makes a difference for a lot of athletes. In June he also had a small scope operation to clean up the remnants of an older knee injury - something that kept him out of training, but left him feeling stronger than ever coming out of the off-season.

He's also enjoying being part of an increasingly competitive men's  technical team.

"Last year we had three guys in the top 25 for the first time ever in slalom, and had another couple of guys just outside. We've now had six guys with top-10s in slaloms... so, yeah, we push each other like crazy in training - one guy will win one day, another guy will win the next. It's great having such a strong team all around."

 

Robbie Dixon - Redemption year

Ask any of his teammates and they'll tell you that Robbie Dixon is one of the best - if not the best - skier on the Canadian Alpine Ski Team. However, he remains one of the few members of the team without a World Cup medal, despite a number of extremely close finishes. And Dixon himself is confident he was knocking on the door last year when a concussion off the slopes put him on the sidelines for over a month in the run-up to the Olympic Games.

But while Dixon is getting more consistent all the time, he's also not taking anything for granted.

"It's almost a redemption year for me, because I felt I didn't live up to my expectations for last year, and didn't get the podium I wanted, and the injuries that happened," he said. "I want to come in strong physically and mentally, and I want to be on top."

It was speculated in the media that the drive to win at all costs might be behind some of Canada's disappointing performances at the Games, that playing it safe might have actually resulted in more medals. Dixon was asked whether the end of the Olympics meant focusing more on consistency than winning.

"(Winning) is still the same objective, we all want that," he said. "We've shown we can do it. Erik (Guay) didn't get a medal in the Olympics but he came away with the overall super G title, which is huge... there's still a drive to win and to be the best all across the board. We want to be on the podium consistently, and I think the team shows a lot of promise there.

"It may not have come together on the right day, like the Olympics, but it's still a strong group, we're still considered young and everyone is still maturing. A lot is going to happen in this next four-year cycle."

In the off-season, Dixon joined the men's speed team for two on-snow camps in New Zealand, but spent far more time in Calgary with his teammates doing dryland training. The Calgary crew was boosted by Erik Guay's decision to relocate from Quebec to be closer to the team and training facilities.

"He's strong, he's driven, he trains hard and I think we were all really happy with how it went," said Dixon. "He's got a moto (motocross motorcycle) too, so we were able to fit in a few team rides on top of being in the gym and change things up a bit."

Summer training was also a little bit different with new men's trainer, Matt Price. They still had their team hockey camp in Quebec to cross-train, but the biggest difference for Dixon was getting out of the gym environment.

"It was almost a Rocky workout," he said. "We were swinging sledgehammers, and tossing around these big farm tires. I like that we change it up - for me, personally, the gym is probably one of my weaker things. There's obviously a lot of time where you can't be skiing, unlike a hockey player where you're always playing hockey, and I have to keep a strong focus in the gym so I don't get led astray. So it's been good."

On the results side, Dixon knows he has it in him to finish on the podium but first he wants to regain the consistency he found before his injury.

"At Lake Louise (Winterstart) last year I came out of the box the way I wanted to and was having consistent results in the top 10, top five - not in the top three, but I was definitely very close," he said. "I want to continue that from the beginning this year, and carry it through the season. It's the world championships, which are of huge importance to us, and we all want to get out of the gate the right way in Lake Louise and carry that through the rest of the year."

 

Britt Janyk - Becoming the Veteran

It's a different women's speed team with Shona Rubens and Emily Brydon retiring at the end of last season, but while Janyk misses her former teammates she is also enjoying her role as the team's veteran.

"It's definitely a bit different," she said. "Kelly (VanderBeek) and Larisa (Yurkiw) are still with the team, but they're injured and didn't take part in any of the training camps, so it was basically me and a lot of the young girls.

"I missed having them around, but it's nice to have a new atmosphere, and there's a good feeling amongst the group. Hopefully I can be a role model for them, because I've been through a lot over the years and hopefully I carry some wisdom with me. But it's great to work with them, and while they do look to me every now and then I do get to go back to that place where I feel like I'm 20 and have fun."

Rob Boyd has also stepped down as the women's head coach, but Janyk says the new crew is working well.

She's coming into the season refreshed, despite feeling a bit of burnout at the end of last season.

"I felt quite energized from the Games with my sixth place result and some good results. But then we went back to Europe for the end of the World Cup season and I was absolutely drained," she said. "To finish the season and World Cup finals, and see what Erik (Guay) achieved was really inspiring. It was a great moment for Erik, but he really shared it with all of us. We were all in the same hotel and had a fun time - and it was really great to see one of those globes sitting in the Canadian hotel. I think that inspired a lot of us."

Although Janyk was in Europe for the World Cup opener, and managed to get in some on-snow training in Austria and Switzerland, her focus is the speed opener at Lake Louise at the end of the month.

"Up until now it's all about getting my skiing to the place where I'm ready to race and really push out of the gate in Lake Louise," she said.

Janyk's off-season was more relaxing than usual. While she did join the team for camps, she "pulled the veteran card" in order to spend more time training at home. She even managed to get away for a holiday.

"I know when I need to go to the gym, and how hard I need to train, and what intensity I need to be on the bike trainer, and that kind of thing. But I wanted to be able to balance rest and recuperation with my training," she said. "That was the nice thing about the off-season. I spent some time away in June. For July I was home in Squamish and in August, when we were back on snow, I was excited to get going again - I really felt fully recovered and refreshed, and excited to be on skis."

Janyk's goal this year is to return to the podium, as well as to improve on her overall consistency heading into the world championships.

"I do want to strive for a medal at the worlds, but the key to that is to build things up in the events leading up to them," she said.