National Alpine Team Set for Season
Canada’s fastest 38 skiers will take to the mountains for the 2009-10 winter season, many of whom will be gearing up for Olympic competition.
On Tuesday, Alpine Canada named 18 men and 11 women to the senior World Cup team. Thirteen are Olympians, seven have won World Cup races and three have secured World Championship medals.
Max Gartner, Chief Athletics Officer for Alpine Canada, said there is a group of young skiers who will push a core of veterans, everyone racing hard for berths on the 2010 Canadian Olympic Team.
The big-name veteran skies are Erik Guay, Jan Hudec, John Kucera, Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Emily Brydon, Britt Janyk and Geneviève Simard. Each has won a World Cup race in his or her career.
Guay leads the entire team with 10 career World Cup medals. That ranks him third all-time behind Ken Read’s 14 and Steve Podborski’s incredible 20. Brydon leads the ladies side with seven career World Cup medals, ranking her fifth all-time.
The skiers are fresh from a 2008-09 campaign that had some very bright highlights. Kucera inspired all with a tremendous performance at the World Championships, winning the gold medal in downhill. The reigning world champion is the first Canadian man to take the downhill crown. Michael Janyk – whose hometown of Whistler is the Olympic alpine venue – won a bronze medal in slalom in that same World Championships, Canada’s first man to reach the podium in a technical event. And Osborne-Paradis won his first-ever World Cup gold medal, in downhill in Kvitfjell, Norway.
The first World Cup begins Oct. 24 in Nov. 14 in Solden, Austria.
Canada’s 2009-10 World Cup Alpine Team:
Ladies
Brigitte Acton, Mont-Tremblant, Que.*
Emily Brydon, Fernie, B.C. *
Marie-Michèle Gagnon, Lac-Etchemin, Que.
Anna Goodman, Pointe Claire, Que.
Britt Janyk, Whistler
Kelly McBroom, Canmore, Alta.
Eve Routhier, Sherbrooke, Que.
Shona Rubens, Canmore*
Geneviève Simard, Val-Morin, Que.*
Kelly VanderBeek, Kitchener, Ont.*
Larisa Yurkiw, Owen Sound, Ont.
Men
Patrick Biggs – Orleans, Ont.*
François Bourque, New Richmond, Que.*
Dustin Cook, Lac Sainte Marie, Que.
Julien Cousineau, Lachute, Que.
Robbie Dixon, Whistler
Jeffrey Frisch, Mont-Tremblant, Que.
Erik Guay, Mont-Tremblant, Que.*
Stefan Guay, Mont-Tremblant, Que.
Louis-Pierre Hélie, Berthierville, Que.
Jan Hudec, Calgary
Michael Janyk, Whistler*
John Kucera, Calgary*
Tyler Nella, Toronto
Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Vancouver*
Jean-Philippe Roy, Ste-Flavie, Que.*
Ryan Semple, Montreal*
Brad Spence, Calgary
Trevor White, Calgary
Denotes Olympians: *
