World Cup Skiing - Oh Canada!

[troutman]

Silver in the downhill, Gold in the Super-G at the Winterstart in Lake Lousie:

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Skiing/200...16337-sun.html

With two medals and several other solid performances this weekend, the Canadian men's speed team signaled to the world they're for real.

A gold-silver start for two different athletes, young ones at that, has the team beaming at the prospect of what could be for the rest of the season.

[habernac]

imagine how friggin cold it was in those skin tight suits they wear. Good job, Crazy Canucks!

[TimSJ]

Great showing by the canucks.... It will be nice to see the Canadain ski team having a few good years. We have been pretty bad for quite a while

[Saint Troy]

Great weekend, I am a casual skiing fan at best, but I do know that this is the first time a canadian has won at home since Rob Boyd ages ago. Isn't Ken Read running the show now?

[troutman]

Yes, Ken Read is doing a great job:

http://www.canski.org/webconcepteur/web/alpine/

The team is planning to "own the podium" in 2010.

Skiing was very exciting to watch in the 1980s when the Crazy Canucks were competitive, especially the downhill.

[troutman]

Ken Read's team is doing awesome:

Sizzlin' on the slopes!

VanderBeek earns big bronze

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...7b1a7b&k=50160

B.C. skier earns World Cup silver

Vancouver's Michael Janyk reached the podium for the first time in his career Sunday, taking silver at the second men's slalom of the World Cup season.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...1-acde9edc62a8

Check out that alpine altitude!

Canadians build early-season momentum

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...8-6a078b3203d4

First, Genevieve Simard put a charge into the Lake Louise crowd with a run that earned fifth place at the Audi FIS World Cup super-G. Soon after she finished, Emily Brydon was hot on her tail, landing in eighth spot.

Then, two skiers after Brydon, Kelly VanderBeek became the first Canadian woman to reach the podium at Lake Louise, finishing third.
But that wasn't all.

As VanderBeek made her way to the chalet for doping, fellow Canadian Mike Janyk was winning silver at a World Cup slalom in Beaver Creek, Colo.

In the men's speed events last weekend at Lake Louise, Manuel Osborne-Paradis earned silver in the downhill before John Kucera took gold in the super-G. Through two weekends, the Carving Canucks already have four medals towards their season goal of 12.

[habernac]

a guy I play hockey with works with John Kucera's father (Kucera won the gold last weekend). This guy has been camping in ski hill parking lots, barely scraping by. I think he won a new Chevy as well with the gold. Nice to see a local guy have some success.

[habernac]

Kucera wins bronze at Val Gardena

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Skiing/200...806546-cp.html

[browna]

I think the goal was to get 12 podium finishes this year for the Men.
Already 5, less then a month into the year.

Good to see, finally, after over a decade of generally poor results in World Cup, let alone World Championships and Olympics...hope the development continues for the next 3 years. If the results are there, the sponsorship $$ will be too.

[Table 5]

It's nice to finally see some positives for Canada in skiing. It really has been a complete embarassment how a country with so many skiiers living in such a winter-oriented culture, has been a mere bleep on the skiing circuit.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Table 5

It's nice to finally see some positives for Canada in skiing. It really has been a complete embarassment how a country with so many skiiers living in such a winter-oriented culture, has been a mere bleep on the skiing circuit.

CAN really does not have that many skiers compared to European countries.

[habernac]

another great performance. Silver medal for Francois Bourque. Go Canada!

http://www.tsn.ca/tsn/news_story/?ID=189224&hubname=

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by troutman

CAN really does not have that many skiers compared to European countries.

If you count only Alberta, B.C, and Quebec as provinces who's citizens have access to good skiing, thats over 15 million people to choose from.

In contrast, Switzerland has 7 million people, Austria has 8 and Norway has 4. Italy is the only real european powerhouse that has more people than us (58 million).

And I know not everybody skiis, but with those sorts of numbers, and the general interest there is in participating in the sport in this part of the country, we should have done better all along. It's nice to see a bit of a turnaround lately....this is how we should be doing all the time!

[browna]

Originally Posted by Table 5

If you count only Alberta, B.C, and Quebec as provinces who's citizens have access to good skiing, thats over 15 million people to choose from.

In contrast, Switzerland has 7 million people, Austria has 8 and Norway has 4. Italy is the only real european powerhouse that has more people than us (58 million).

And I know not everybody skiis, but with those sorts of numbers, and the general interest there is in participating in the sport in this part of the country, we should have done better all along. It's nice to see a bit of a turnaround lately....this is how we should be doing all the time!

But can't the Euros train on actual ski runs, in certain parts of the Alps, year round? Huge advantage. I think I also heard that many counties also go to South America to train in our summer/their winter (Peru?) in the high mountians. Very pricey with Canada's historically shoestring budget.

[habernac]

send 'em all to Whistler, the glacier is skiable most of the year. I was there in June and they were still up there in prettydecetn numbers.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Table 5

If you count only Alberta, B.C, and Quebec as provinces who's citizens have access to good skiing, thats over 15 million people to choose from.

In contrast, Switzerland has 7 million people, Austria has 8 and Norway has 4. Italy is the only real european powerhouse that has more people than us (58 million).

And I know not everybody skiis, but with those sorts of numbers, and the general interest there is in participating in the sport in this part of the country, we should have done better all along. It's nice to see a bit of a turnaround lately....this is how we should be doing all the time!

Trust me. WAY more people ski, and ski competitively in Europe than Canada.

My father in law from Germany was at Sunshine Wednesday. No one was on the mountain. In the alps there is a resort on every peak, and super long lift lines.

[browna]

First double podium in 13 years today.

http://www.tsn.ca/tsn/news_story/?ID=192961&hubname=

Also, Lueders gets a gold in bobsled today too.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

"I definitely think they're taking us seriously," said Guay. "You can't deny we're one of the stronger teams out there, we've had medals in all disciplines this year, there's no reason to question us."

Added Osborne-Paradis: "We've always been a really nice team and everybody has talked to us and been our friends but they haven't really feared us. The Austrians, they come up and talk to us a lot more now. On an inspection we figure out lines together and there's little things like that where they wouldn't have done that before if we were not doing that well."

Very cool. Hope they keep it up.

[troutman]

Ken Read is doing a fantastic job. The team should make us proud in Vancouver 2010.

Eight podium finishes already for the new Crazy Canucks. Seven from the men, one from the women.

[troutman]

The team continues to do well. No podium, but the CDN ladies were 4th and 5th in a Super G today in Italy:

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Skiing/200...431818-ap.html

Britt Janyk of Whistler, B.C., was fourth and Kelly VanderBeek of Kitchener, Ont., fifth.