Harvey a hometown hero
Canadian skis to World Cup gold in Quebec race
In front of a raucous home crowd, Alex Harvey put a punctuation mark on his finest season Friday by winning World Cup sprint gold on the Plains of Abraham.
The seventh career World Cup victory is impressive in itself. But to fully appreciate Harvey’s athletic prowess, look at the last two weeks for the nine- year veteran of the national cross- country ski team. In the span of 13 days, Harvey won the prestigious 50- km world championship title in Lahti, Finland and then finished first in a 1.5-km freestyle sprint on Quebec’s famous battlefield.
That’s like watching Usain Bolt claim a 100- metre world title and follow it up with a victory at the Boston Marathon.
“I’m lucky to have good genetics,” said Harvey, the son of l egendary cross- country skier Pierre Harvey. “I guess my muscles are good for short sprints and then longer distances. But my training is adapted to that. I really try to train for every aspect of my sport. I work really hard for it. I do a lot of strength training and speed training in the summer as well as pure endurance training. But you need to start with good genetics.”
Harvey won silver last year in the Quebec City sprint and didn’t know if he would have another chance on home snow until the International Ski Federation moved the event to Canada from Tyumen, Russia amid the Sochi doping scandal.
“The world championships is a bigger event, but to win at home like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Harvey, a media darling in his home province. “I’m just so happy I was able to do it today. You always need a little bit of luck in sprint racing, and I was lucky.”
Lucky is a word few would use to describe Harvey’s success on the Nordic circuit. The 28- yearold from Saint- Ferreol- les- Neiges, Que. is one of Canada’s most dominant athletes in any sport. Regardless of the distance, regardless of the technique, Harvey is a medal threat in every race. The threetime Olympian sits third overall in the World Cup standings with two races to go.
“I was just floating today,” said Harvey, who has 23 World Cup medals and five world championship medals. “That is always the plan, but it doesn’t always work out. It just felt easy.”
In Friday’s final, Harvey jostled for position with Norway’s Finn Haagen Krogh before bolting ahead for good on the final corner.
Harvey might have a low profile in much of Canada, but he is widely known on the World Cup tour as the “Prince of Quebec.”
On Friday, he put on a show for his subjects.
“Every time I lined up on the start line, whether it was in the quarter-finals, semifinals or finals, the crowd was just roaring,” he said. “It was great.
As is customary with all Canadian podium performances, Harvey cut loose in the finish area by playing an air guitar to celebrate his latest victory.
“More gold,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter. “This time on home snow in Quebec City. Keep gliding to victory & making us proud, Alex.”
Notes: Ottawa’s Mirela Rahneva capped off her rookie World Cup skeleton season Friday by finishing fifth in an Olympic test event in PyeongChang, South Korea. The 28- year- old slider ends the year in third place overall in the World Cup standings with one gold medal, one silver and two bronze. “I can’t believe I ended up third overall,” she said. “It’s very exciting, but I also am looking for more next year. I have a ton more work to get to where I’d like to be, but that’s what summer is for.” Rahneva is expected once again to balance her training in Calgary this summer with part- time work in the catering department at Winsport’s Canada Olympic Park.
EVERY TIME I LINED UP ... THE CROWD WAS JUST ROARING.