Young Canadian rock ski world
DECEMBER 2006 — VOLUME 4 ISSUE 12
While early November in Sun Peaks signals the arrival of the Austrian Ski Team and the start of their training on the Nancy Greene International Race Centre, late November in Lake Louise has taken on a whole new look for Canadian ski racing fans.
The last week of November saw the best male ski racers in the world gather for the start of the FIS World Cup downhill and super-G season at the famed Lake Louise resort.
As usual all eyes were on the favoured Austrian team and their deep well of talent, including the likes of Hermann Maier, Michael Walchofer and Olympic downhill champion Fritz Strobl.
Fresh off of training at Sun Peaks and Copper Mountain, Colorado, the Austrians were geared up to start where they finished the last season, totally dominating alpine ski racing.
Unbeknown to them, a young and strong Canadian team was up for the challenge.
With Alpine Canada head Ken Read looking for 12 podium finishes this season the men’s team started it off with a bang. In the downhill, 22-year-old Vancouver native Manuel Osbourne-Paradis stunned the crowd by grabbing the lead after only three racers and then had the gut-wrenching task of watching all the best racers in the world try to dethrone him. As racer after racer failed to catch Osbourne-Paradis it looked like he was going to win the first FIS World Cup downhill of the season and his first-ever, only to be outdone by racer #28, veteran downhiller Marco Buechel of Liechtenstein by a mere 5/100ths of a second. The rest of the Canadian squad also finished strong with young John Kucera of Calgary finishing 14th and Jan Hudec and Eric Guay finishing 17th and 23rd respectively.
Taking Saturday’s successes into the Sunday super-G event the Canadians were once again fired up. On a cold icy course, 22-year-old Kucera from Calgary was first out of the gate wearing bib #1 and used the smooth track to his advantage, attacking the upper sections to post a blistering time of 1:29.70. Like Osbourne-Paradis the day prior, Kucera could only sit, watch and wait as the rest of the field tried to best his standard.
Racer after racer attacked the course until there was only one left who could catch Kucera and upset Canadian ski racing history—the great Hermann Maier. With a look of shock and disbelief, Kucera watched Maier finish 4th behind him, Mario Scheiber of Austria and Patrick Jaerbyn of Sweden.
His first World Cup win gives Kucera a place in the record books as the only Canadian in history to win a FIS World Cup super-G on home snow. Fellow Canadians Eric Guay, his younger brother Stefan Guay and Jan Hudec also had excellent results placing 6th, 25th and 27th.
Look out Austria—the Canadian men have got your number!
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