THE WORLD HAS A NEW CHAMP
Canada’s most decorated skier unassailable in cross-country’s most prestigious race
Cross-country skier Alex Harvey is known as the Prince of Quebec for the wild celebrity he enjoys in his home province. On Sunday, Harvey’s teammates started calling him the King of Quebec after he claimed the world title in the men’s 50-kilometre race.
Somehow, after churning his legs for one hour 46 minutes 28.9 seconds, Harvey crossed the finish line and celebrated by riffing on an air guitar, punching the air repeatedly and letting out a scream that can only be described as primal.
Many Canadian kids dream of potting the winning goal in the Stanley Cup final. Some fantasize about scoring the deciding touchdown in the Grey Cup or becoming the next Christine Sinclair, Penny Oleksiak or Andre De Grasse.
The son of Canadian crosscountry ski legend Pierre Harvey, Alex Harvey always yearned for an individual world title in the sport that made his dad famous. Mission accomplished.
“It means everything to me,” Harvey told Postmedia News on Sunday from Lahti, Finland. “This is what I’ve been striving for and dreaming of since I was a kid. I wanted to be a world champion in something. Whether it was the one-kilometre or the 50-kilometre, that’s what I’ve been training for.
“And now to do it in the most prestigious race — the long one — it’s just surreal. You just hope you’re going to live through these kind of emotions once or twice in your life.”
Harvey, 28, is a rare specimen in his ability to compete and win in virtually every distance from sprints to the marathon. On Sunday, he stuck with the lead pack for most of the race and pulled into second place heading into the final corner. Like a human slingshot, he rocketed ahead of Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby. And from there, he fought off all comers in a sprint for the ages.
“It was mine to lose,” Harvey said. “It just turned out to be a perfect race for me.
“Normally after a 50K, I feel really tired, but right now I’m not feeling any fatigue. I’m on a cloud a little bit, and it’s awesome.”
Harvey won the race by just six-10ths of a second over Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov. Finland’s Matti Heikkinen, the crowd favourite, finished 1.4 seconds back for bronze.
The most decorated Canadian Nordic skier in history, Harvey now has two world championship titles — he won gold in 2011 in the team sprint with Devon Kershaw — and 21 World Cup podium finishes.
But this latest title is arguably the most special of them all.
“This is the biggest race in cross-country skiing,” Harvey said. “It was so tough and fast out there.
“You need to have fast skis, great tactics, a bit of luck and some magic. Today, I had the magic.”
Kershaw of Sudbury, Ont., finished 38th in Sunday’s race. Graeme Killick of Fort McMurray, Alta., was 43rd and Whitehorse’s Knute Johnsgaard came in 55th.
The Canadian team will travel to Oslo, Norway, from Finland for two World Cup races before heading home to Quebec City for the World Cup finals March 17 to 19.
Meanwhile, Marielle Thompson belongs in the same conversation as bobsled pilot Kaillie Humphries and mogul skier Mikael Kingsbury as Canadian Olympians who are simply expected to win every weekend.
Like Humphries and Kingsbury, Thompson is pretty much automatic in the unpredictable world of ski cross, where crashes and calamity take out even the best racers in any given event.
Somehow, the native of Whistler, B.C., soars to the front of the pack in virtually every race — no matter the venue, the weather or the strategy of her competitors.
On Sunday, the 24-year-old nailed her seventh World Cup victory of the season at Ontario’s Blue Mountain Resort. She also claimed her third Crystal Globe as the women’s World Cup overall leader for 2016-17.
“The external pressure is there, but it’s nothing like the pressure I put on myself,” Thompson, the reigning Olympic champion, said.
“I just try to do my best and hopefully it works out in the end.”
It worked out in the end Sunday for both Thompson and Brady Leman at the World Cup finals on home snow. Thompson and Leman finished first in every heat en route to locking down gold in both the men’s and women’s events.
Montreal’s Chris Del Bosco seized silver for a one-two Canadian finish in the men’s final. Canada also claimed the Nation’s Cup as the team leader in the World Cup overall standings for 2016-17. Notes: Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin finished fifth Sunday at the ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships in Hamar, Norway. The Canadian men’s biathlon team finished seventh in the relay Sunday at an Olympic test event in PyeongChang, South Korea. The Canadian women came in eighth.
This is the biggest race in cross-country skiing. … You need to have fast skis, great tactics, a bit of luck and some magic. Today, I had the magic.