The next generation
Josh Fiala following in ski tracks of his Olympian father
Josh Fiala has not seen video evidence of his dad racing in the Olympics in biathlon but it does exist, somewhere in his grandmother’s collection. There’s no denying ski racing is in his blood. The 13-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member started skiing with his family when he was two and has been racing provincially for five seasons.
His father Tony is a two-Olympian in biathlon and his mother Wendy is a former provincial-level cyclist/biathlete and national-level masters ski racer. Josh’s sister Danika, 16, climbed the ranks with the Caledonia club’s Junior Racer cross-country program and is now finding success on the B.C. Cup biathlon circuit.
As the son of an Olympian, Josh says he doesn’t feel any pressure from his father to follow in his footsteps to become an international athlete.
“He just supports me, he doesn’t really care if I do too well or not, he just cares that I’m loving what I’m doing,” Josh said. “I like how hard I have to push myself – you feel so good after a nice ski race. It’s like you’re getting free drugs.”
But he shares the same drive that took Tony to the top level of competition and is starting to believe there’s no reason why he can’t one day represent Canada himself as a World Cup athlete.
“I could see that, a lot of things could happen,” he said.
Tony was on Canada’s national team for nearly a decade and competed at the Winter Games in Albertville in 1992 and Nagano in 1998, finishing as high as 26th in the individual race at the 1992 Olympics. He helps coach the Caledonia skiers with head coach Graeme Moore and is enjoying his time watching Josh grow up on the slopes.
“It’s kind of fun to give him tips so he doesn’t make the same mistakes I did,” said Tony.
Josh won the Teck B.C. Cup Nordic Forest midget boys freestyle race Sunday at Otway Nordic Centre by 16.6 seconds over second-place finisher Garrett Siever of Kelowna, covering the five-kilometre course in 18:21.41. Aiden Hay of Vancouver won bronze.
“I set my sights on this guy from Vancouver Island (Hugo Henckel of Courtenay) and caught him on the first lap at the top of the biggest hill and I just kept going as hard as I could for the next 3.5 K,” said Fiala.
Siever edged Fiala for gold in the sprint final Saturday at Otway.
At 13, Fiala is undergoing a growth spurt that requires some muscle co-ordination adjustments but that has also translated into longer ski strides and more power for hill-climbing.
Fiala, a Grade 8 student at D.P. Todd secondary school, also competes in cross country running and is a distance runner with the Prince George Track and Field Club. No matter what the season he loves to race and he’s not afraid to take his lumps taking on older, faster racers. That just makes him try harder. That attitude in practices has taken him to the top of the midget 2 boys class in the Teck B.C. Cup cross-country standings.
Last month at the Haywood NorAm West- ern Canadian championships in Red Deer Fiala finished third in the sprint, fifth in the distance race and helped B.C. to a silver medal in the relays.
In other Caledonia results Sunday, Nikki Kassel won a hotly-contested 10 km open/ master women’s race that featured four Prince George skiers claiming the top four spots. Kassel, 44, edged 25-year-old Kajsa Hayes for first, finishing in 38:06.4, 1:35.9 ahead of Hayes. Kaia Andal, 18, in a final tune-up race before she heads to Switzerland to join the FIS junior circuit this week, placed third, 1:51.2 behind Kassel. Jacqui Pettersen, 46, was fourth, 2:35.4 behind.
In the open men’s 15 km freestyle, Thompsen D’Hont of Caledonia placed second, just 7.8 seconds behind Brian May of Larch Hills (Salmon Arm).
In the PWC sprints on Saturday, Andal captured gold in the open women’s class and Pettersen was tops in the masters women’s category.
Race temperatures were below the -15 C cutoff on both days, which meant all racers younger than 12 were not allowed to race due to the risk of permanent lung damage from the cold. That kept half the field of 271 from racing.
He just supports me, he doesn’t really care if I do too well or not, he just cares that I’m loving what I’m doing.
— Josh Fiala