Canadian resumes podium posture
Five long years after last World Cup top-three, Osborne-Paradis is back
Manuel Osborne-Paradis hit the Big Three Oh in 2014, but it was another number — nine — that was weighing on his mind. He finally made it irrelevant this weekend at Lake Louise, Alta.
The downhill skier out of North Vancouver recorded nine World Cup podium finishes — three wins, two seconds and four thirds over a 38-month period from November 2006 to January 2010.
Manny, the easygoing kid with the uniquely trilingual name — he was conceived in Mexico (thus, the Manuel) while his Anglo (mom) and French (dad) were visiting there — was poised for a big career.
But a broken leg and torn ACL suffered in a terrible January 2011 crash and a booze-infused fall six months later from the back of a party bus during the Calgary Stampede kept him off the slopes for a season and a half.
Now 30, and freshly married, Osborne-Paradis climbed back onto the podium for the first time in nearly five years in Saturday's World Cup downhill season opener by tying with France's Guillermo Fayed for the second-fastest time. On a bitterly cold, -20 C day, the two finished just 0.14 seconds behind winner Kjetil Jansrud of Norway.
“I was really worried,” Osborne-Paradis said in a phone interview Saturday night while riding the exercise bike in the Chateau Lake Louise. “Canadians have a bit of a curse. (Downhiller) Rob Boyd and (giant-slalom specialist) Thomas Grandi, they both finished their careers with nine ( World Cup) podiums.
“They weren't able to get into double figures and I was worried I wouldn't get there. I knew I had it in me, though, and now I'm super happy to get there and hopefully there's a lot more.” There should be. Osborne-Paradis is in his prime, in the best skiing shape of his life and is being coached once again by Burkhard Schaffer, the Austrian who guided the Canadian men's speed team from 2001 to 2006. After stints in Norway, Slovenia and Austria, Schaffer returned to the Alpine Canada fold this season.
“For me, it's important,” Osborne-Paradis said of Schaffer's return. “Everybody has somebody who drives them a little better than others. When my A.D.D. gets in the way of my training and programs, he's somebody who can stabilize me.
“A good yelling never really hurt anybody. He's just a guy who makes sure you stay on the straight and narrow. He makes sure you get the amount of runs you should and get enough reps.”
Osborne-Paradis, who now splits his time between homes in Calgary and Invermere, was also a Canadian-best seventh in Sunday's Super G, which was also won by Jansrud. At one minute, 32.53 seconds, Osborne-Paradis was 0.51 seconds back of the Norwegian veteran. Mattias Mayer of Austria (1:32.31) was second, with Dominik Paris of Italy third (1:32.33).
While his seventh was encouraging — of his 25 previous World Cup top 10s, only two, a win in Lake Louise and an eighth in Kvitfjell, Norway, had come in Super G — the second in downhill make his weekend.
“Downhill is my bread and butter and it's great to be back on the podium. It's been a long time.”
Like several other skiers, Osborne-Paradis is excited that Hannes Trinkl, a former speed skier from Austria, will be setting downhill courses this season.
The Lake Louise track was more wide open and less technical, with fewer turns.
“It's probably set the way it was when (Trinkl) raced it more or less, back when downhill was downhill,” said Calgarian Jan Hudec, who was 19th on Saturday, was ninth in the Super G.
“Our downhills have been getting turnier and turnier over the years and more technical.”
Said Fayed: “We have more fast, more jumps. I hope the whole season is like this.”