GUAY AGING LIKE FINE WINE
Canadian skier earns WC gold, silver
It’s only February, but on Sunday Erik Guay stormed into contention for the Lou Marsh Trophy — awarded every December to Canada’s top athlete, amateur or professional — by winning silver in the men’s downhill at the 2017 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
The medal comes four days after the pride of Mont-Tremblant, Que., became the oldest man to ever win a world alpine title with gold in super G at the age of 35.
“In what is the most competitive winter sport, Erik Guay just did the biggest achievement ever — period,” said Dominick Gauthier, who co-founded the B2ten group of silent benefactors who provide money and resources to Canadian Olympic athletes to get them on the podium.
“With this week’s performance in St. Moritz, Erik just catapulted himself into the very elite of ski racing history,” said Max Gartner, former president of Alpine Canada and a high-performance sports consultant. “What an amazing achievement for a Canadian skier.
On Sunday, Guay, the most decorated alpine skier in Canadian history, slashed across the finish line just 0.12 seconds behind Switzerland’s Beat Feuz. Max Franz of Austria claimed bronze.
After the race, Guay deflected the credit to his support team, thanking everyone from his physiotherapists to his doctors to his coaches. He gushed about the course report he received atop the mountain via telephone from fellow Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis, who won bronze in super G but settled for 31st in downhill.
“And my ski serviceman made my skis rocket ships today,” Guay said. “So that was great.”
After six knee surgeries, Guay has said his next major injury will be his last. Dogged over the years by chronic back and knee pain, Guay is determined to leave the sport still able to ski with his kids for years to come.
“It’s emotional, for sure, knowing what I’ve been through and knowing what my family’s been through and just having clawed back from all these injuries,” he said. “But I never lost faith. I knew I had it in me. I know that when I’m healthy, I can be competitive. That’s never left me.”
Staying healthy is a constant challenge in a sport that involves hurling oneself down a slick mountain at speeds exceeding 140 kilometres an hour. So while Guay is considered an early medal favourite for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, he refuses to think that far ahead.
“The Olympics are a year away, and in a year of sport, a lot can happen between now and then,” he said. “You need to take it step by step and focus on these next races, and then you start focusing on the off-season.”
Guay credited his off-season training last summer for helping him peak at the world championships. He plans to use the same blueprint in his preparations for PyeongChang.
Known for his steady, calm demeanour, Guay is philosophical about his two near misses on the Olympic stage. He lost out on bronze by a 10th of a second in the super G at the 2006 Turin Winter Games, and four years later in Vancouver, he posted a pair of fifth-place finishes.
The super G race proved particularly heartbreaking, with the Canadian stopping the clock just three-100ths of a second back of bronze and six-100ths away from silver.
But with three world championship medals on his resume — he also won the world downhill title in 2011 — Guay’s place in history is guaranteed.
“I feel better than I have in the last five, six years,” he said. “I’m able to run. I’m able to train. I’m able to do everything I did back when I was 25 years old.
“Age doesn’t seem to be a factor right now.”
With Guay’s silver, Canada tied the record for the most world championship medals in a single year with three — a feat also accomplished in 1958 (Lucille Wheeler, two golds and a silver) and a decade later in 1968 (Nancy Greene, two golds and a silver.) Notes: Montreal’s Sebastien Toutant won gold Sunday at a World Cup slopestyle stop in Stoneham, Que. Regina native Mark McMorris took silver, a day after locking up the World Cup overall title in big air with a victory over silver medallist Max Parrot of Bromont. Que. On the women’s side, Brooke Voigt of Fort McMurray, Alta., captured bronze in Sunday’s slopestyle event.
In men’s slopestyle, Canada’s Alex Beaulieu-Marchand won bronze in a World Cup event in his hometown of Quebec City on Sunday.
In ski cross at Idre Fjall, Sweden, Marielle Thompson of Whistler, B.C., and Calgary’s Brady Leman both won World Cup gold Sunday.