For the first time since 2005, the Canadian Alpine Ski Team failed to win a medal at the FIS Alpine World Championships, which were hosted in Schladming, Austria. The skiers came closest in the team event where Mike Janyk and Erin Mielzynski placed fourth in a dual slalom competition; while Erik Guay was on pace to a win a medal in the men's downhill when he skied off course.
The final weekend was all about the technical events, giant slalom and slalom.
In the GS, Canada's Marie-Michele Gagnon went on to place eighth overall, just 0.35 seconds back of the top five.
"It was a fight but I laid it out there, I attacked," she said. "For sure, some mistakes happened but I gave it all I had today and eighth place — I'm really happy. It was a great experience, the crowd was crazy."
Marie-Pier Prefontaine placed 28th.
The win went to Tessa Worley of France while Tina Maze of Slovenia, on the podium an incredible 17 times this season, picked up the silver medal. Anna Fenninger of Austria was third.
In the men's event, American Ted Ligety was the racer to beat once again and he finished his day with a gap of almost 0.8 seconds. Marcel Hirscher of Austria was second and Manfred Moelgg of Italy third.
The sole Canadian finisher was Dan Brown in 35th.
In the slalom, Gagnon led the team once again with a 13th place finish, while Erin Mielzynski was 17th, Elli Terwiel 28th and Brittany Phelan 30th.
Gagnon said she was probably focusing too much on her skiing rather than speed.
"I think I maybe skied a little bit too pretty," she said. "I needed to charge a little more in some places. I mean, it's the story of my season; I've had a lot of ups and downs. I need to learn to really attack every run, not just (focus on) the technical points of skiing. I think that's my lesson from today — especially here, you've just got to charge."
On the men's side, Whistler's Mike Janyk was 14th overall, the only Canadian to crack the top 30.
While it's an improvement of sorts for Janyk, who struggled with a string of DNFs, he was hoping for more.
"As far as my season's been going in races, I would say this was a solid race but I know how I was skiing before this. I was skiing the best. It was insane, it was really good... Second run it was there and I lost all my power at the bottom. I'm going to look to build in this. I know in training I've made steps that I've never reached before and I've got to bring that into racing now."
While the Canadian team was disappointed, the season is far from over, with seven World Cup events still to race.
Past World Championship Medals:
2011 — Erik Guay first in men's downhill
2009 — John Kucera first in men's downhill; Mike Janyk third in slalom
2007 — Jan Hudec second in downhill
2005 — No medals
2003 — Melanie Turgeon first in women's downhill, Allison Forsyth third in GS.
