Men’s downhill wiped out by snow, lack of visibility
With a knee injury claiming Mont Tremblant’s Erik Guay and World Champion Melanie Turgeon still sidelined with a back injury – she’ll be back sometime this month – the Canadian Alpine Ski Team is missing its brightest stars.
Still, if nothing else the Canadian team has proved itself to be deep in the last few years, with different skiers stepping up every weekend to earn points by landing in the top-30.
Genevieve Simard of Val-Morin, Quebec has stepped up a lot recently, coming off her best ever World Cup downhill result in Italy – 17 th – just before Christmas. She was back on the slopes on Dec. 27 at Lienz, Switzerland for a World Cup giant slalom.
Simard was 27 th after her first run, and moved up five spots into 22 nd on run two.
"I know that technically my skiing is there," said Simard. "I made mistakes, and you can’t do that on the World Cup – the field is so strong and the top girls don’t make mistakes."
She wasn’t the only Canadian to crack the top-30. Nanaimo’s Allison Forsyth was just two spots back in 24 th .
The race went to Austria’s Nicole Hosp, who is the current World Cup points leader. Her teammate, Renate Goetschl, was a close second and Kirsten Clark of the U.S. was third.
In the second day of racing, the slalom, none of the Canadians managed to qualify for a second run. That gold medal went to Anja Paerson of Sweden, followed by Hosp and Monika Bergmann-Schmuderer of Germany.
Meanwhile the men’s team was at Bormio, Italy for a downhill race.
After taking training runs on a course that was mostly man-made due to the lack of natural snow, a storm then dropped more than 25 centimetres of snow on the course, forcing the cancellation of the race. Although the course could have been cleared, low visibility was another factor in the decision.
An extra race may be added in France in the January to make up for the loss.
The World Cup season resumes in the New Year with a men’s giant slalom at Flachau, Austria and a women’s super G at Megeve, France.
