Andrew Mitchell
It was an astonishing World Cup week for the Canadian Alpine Ski Team, with two medals in a women’s giant slalom, and three men finishing top-20 in a downhill.
Showing the depth of the program, one of those results belongs to a rookie, Whistler Mountain Ski Club alumnus Manuel Osborne-Paradis, who is filling in for an injured national team athlete. Another rookie, Patrick Biggs, was 10 th in a World Cup slalom.
Turgeon out
The week began on a low note when Mélanie Turgeon of Quebec City, the defending downhill world champion, announced last week that she was taking the remainder of the 2005 racing season off. She missed all of last season with herniated disks in her back and made a promising return to the World Cup circuit in November with a 16 th place finish at Lake Louise. She called a press conference on Jan. 6 to explain her decision to pull out of racing this year.
"The lack of training caught up with me," she said. "It was time to change our game plan. Things went relatively well in Lake Louise to start the season because I had four good training runs during the week. But once we travelled to Europe, things changed because of the lack of snow and lack of training. My results were less and less satisfying."
Rather than ski out the rest of the season, Turgeon instead opted to come home and start her training for the 2006 season, an Olympic year, in earnest. She said she would rejoin the national team at its first training camp in May.
"No, I am not retiring. I still love to ski. I want to come back, and I want to come back strong. That’s my objective."
While the pronouncement came as a blow to the national team, which has already lost three top performers on the men’s side to injuries, they agreed that it was probably for the best.
"Normally, optimal preparation time is 55 to 60 days, but with Mélanie, considering her situation, she had always been able to get away with less," said Piotr Jelen, the head coach for the women’s downhill team. "But yesterday (Wednesday) we looked at the videos and we said to ourselves that things couldn’t go on like this."
As a result of the decision, Turgeon won’t be in Bormio, Italy in February to defend her world championship title.
The good news for the Canadian team is that we still have a good chance of winning a medal there.
Bryon in
Fernie’s Emily Brydon was solid in a downhill race at Santa Caterina, Italy this week, finishing 10 th on a fast course that saw racers crack speeds of 140 km/h.
The win went to Ingrid Jacquemod of France, who edged out Renate Goetschl of Austria in second and Carole Montillet-Carles of France in third.
"I am happy with my race," said Brydon. "I attacked just as much as yesterday but I skied smarter. Today I focussed on being very smooth on my skis and on letting the skis go. My patience paid off because I reached my goal of finishing in the top-10, and I was pretty close from the best time.
"Even though this is the fastest course I’ve skied in my career, I didn’t feel the speed as much today because the course crew had done such great work of slipping it our."
Tenth was Brydon’s best result this season, until she finished ninth in a super G at Cortina, Italy on Wednesday. Goetschl won the super G, followed by Sweden’s Anja Paerson and Germany’s Martina Ertl.
Genevieve Simard was 19 th .
"Downhill is all about confidence," Brydon said after Santa Caterina. "With this result I can build on stronger foundations for the next race. I still have a few races before the World Championships and I hope to use this confidence to do better at each race."
Jeff Hume sixth
Whistler’s Jeff Hume put all doubts about his ability to compete at the World Cup level aside on Saturday (Jan. 8) with a sixth place finish on the Piste Verte downhill course in Chamonix, France. Manuel Osborne-Paradis was 14 th in his World Cup debut, and Erik Guay 18 th , giving Canada three finishers in the top-20.
Hume was the ninth skier out of the gate, and was amazed after his run to see that he had posted the top time of the day. He stayed in the leader’s box for close to 20 minutes before the top skiers bumped him back five spots into a tie for sixth, but the 22 year old was ecstatic with his finish.
"I’m so happy," said Hume. "I got to stand in the leader box at the world championships two years ago for about a minute and half. I got to stand there for 15-20 minutes today, it was great."
He even finished ahead of Austria’s Hermann Maier and American Bode Miller, two of the most dominant skiers in the world.
This was the first time that Hume cracked the top-30 in a World Cup, as well as his career-best finish in the downhill.
It’s not for a lack of trying. In his World Cup debut season two years ago, Hume came out aggressively by posting winning split times in several events. He was a little too aggressive, however, skiing off course in some events and suffering crash after crash. In January of 2004 he suffered a concussion that left him sidelined for most of the season.
He’s been more cautious this year, but his results haven’t been as strong. Until Saturday, that is.
Hume said he was motivated by the performance of Osborne-Paradis, who led all Canadians in the final training run on Friday.
"It doesn’t mean anything, but if you have someone on your team that you want to beat it helps. He was fast and it helped me," said Hume.
"I think the main difference in what I did today was I stopped thinking too much. I over-analyze. But I just let myself go today. I set myself free and raced like I know I can. You’ve got to push for speed all the way down."
Osborne-Paradis was as stunned as anyone by his World Cup debut.
"I was really nervous," he said, after finishing training with one of the top start numbers. "I had a hard time sleeping last night, my stomach has been upset but I’ve finally calmed down now. It’s good to have it done, the first one."
Guay was disappointed with his own run, but happy for his teammates. "I can’t really be disappointed because I look at Jeff and Manny right now and I’m so happy for them."
Burkhard Schaffer, the men’s speed coach, was proud of his skiers for finishing so strong on a course that left five skiers with injuries over training and on competition day.
"If you have a look at how many crashed and how many were injured, it’s not an easy downhill," he said.
The win went to Johann Grugger of Austria, followed by Kristian Ghedina. Michael Walchhofer of Austria was third.
Simard, Forsyth on podium
The Canadian skiers earned their third and fourth medals of the season in the women’s giant slalom on Saturday, when Genevieve Simard of Val Morin, Quebec edged out Allison Forsyth of Canmore for the second position. That meant a silver and bronze for Canada, just 0.06 seconds apart, while Tina Maze of Slovenia went on to claim gold.
Gail Kelly was 18 th , Emily Brydon 20 th and Brigitte Acton 21 st to give the Canadians five athletes in the top-30.
"Things happened so fast with (Nicole) Hosp falling in the second run and racers attacking from the back. Everyone was changing ranking," said Simard. "It took me a while to realize that I had finished second. I was particularly happy when I saw that Allison was also on the podium."
Both skiers improved their rankings between runs, with Simard moving from 11 th to second and Forsyth from 18 th to third.
"I gave myself an ultimatum after the first run, which was disappointing for me," said Forsyth, who grew up in Nanaimo and trained with the Whistler Mountain Ski Club. "I went out of my comfort zone for the second run and it really paid off."
Biggs nets first top-10
In his first career World Cup race, Patrick Biggs from Orleans, Ontario finished 10 th in a World Cup slalom at Chamonix on Sunday, posting the second fastest second leg after barely qualifying with a 30 th place finish in the first run.
Biggs isn’t even a member of the national team, but the development team.
He was in Europe competing in Europa Cup races, winning a pair of slaloms before getting his first World Cup start at Chamonix.
Thomas Grandi, Canada’s top slalom racer, crashed in his first run. Before the crash, his time was less than half a second behind the leader, and on pace to put him in second place heading into the second run.
Whistler’s Michael Janyk just missed a second run, finishing 31 st . Jean-Philippe Roy was 32 nd .
In the giant slalom at Adelboden, Switzerland on Tuesday, Grandi finished 12 th . He won his previous two races to rank first in the GS standings. After Adelboden he gave up the leader’s bib to Bode Miller, who finished second.
