Rahneva earns podium finish for Canada
Ottawa-based skeleton racer scores her first World Cup medal, sliding to bronze on Lake Placid track
Mimi Rahneva wrapped herself in the Canadian flag Saturday as she climbed onto the World Cup skeleton podium for the first time.
“It’s a bit surreal, to be honest,” Rahneva said from Lake Placid, N.Y. “It means everything to me.
“Before I went down for my second run, I kept staring at the Canada flag my coach has on his jacket. That’s what I focused on and it was incredible.”
The 28-year-old World Cup rookie is forever thankful to her parents for making the trek to Ottawa from their native Bulgaria in hopes of giving their children a better life.
It wasn’t easy. Upon arriving in Canada, her university-educated dad Stoyan and mom Valentina discovered their accounting credentials meant nothing. So they took jobs delivering fast food and cleaning houses.
At age 10, Rahneva knew little English, so she and her sisters played manhunt with the neighbourhood kids to learn the lingo. She struggled with the language, but never with her foot speed. In tag, she was rarely “it” for long.
Buoyed by that same raw explosiveness, the University of Guelph product rocketed from fourth place to third Saturday on her second and final run — her face mere inches from the ground flying down the track at more than 100 km/h.
“I could not believe it when I moved into third,” said Rahneva, who works part-time in catering at Winsport’s Canada Olympic Park. “I’m now right there with the top girls in the world.”
Austria’s Janine Flock won gold Saturday in a combined time of one minute, 49.77 seconds. Great Britain’s Lizzy Yarnold captured silver in 1:50.58. Rahneva stopped the clock at 1:50.92.
“I went for a green tea latte, went for a walk down the main street of Lake Placid and just tried to clear my head, relax and focus,” Rahneva said of her pre-race routine.
Calgary’s Elisabeth Vathje came in eighth. Jane Channell of North Vancouver was 16th.
In four-man bobsled action, the Canadian crew of Chris Spring, Montreal Alouettes receiver Sam Giguere, Lascelles Brown and Cam Stones claimed bronze.
Spring and Brown, both of Calgary, also won bronze in Friday’s two-man race.
“I get a lot of confidence from the boys behind me,” Spring said. “I believe in myself, but when other people believe in my ability, I take a lot more confidence from that.
“Those guys believe I’m the best pilot out there, and if they believe that, it allows me to as well.”
SHORT-TRACK TEAMWORK
Looking back, speedskater Kim Boutin figures she made the right call in taking an unscheduled six months off earlier this year to rest her body and recharge her mind.
In a better place mentally and physically, the 22-year-old from Sherbrooke, Que. scrapped to her first podium of the season Saturday at a World Cup short track race in Gangneung, South Korea.
Boutin crossed the finish line in third place in the women’s 1,500 metres. Marianne St-Gelais, the leader of the Canadian team, seized silver behind Korea’s Suk Hee Shim.
The event doubled as a test event for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
“It means a lot for me to be on the podium,” Boutin said. “It was my first medal after my break ... It’s a really good day.”
When the day was done, St-Gelais wanted to talk more about Boutin’s performance than her own.
“We worked as a team,” St-Gelais said. “I got excited during the race, because Kim was so strong. She was doing amazing things ...
“I made a pass on her. It was safe. She was wide. We tried for the finish. We came second and third. Overall, I’m really proud of what we did.”
New mom Marie-Eve Drolet, of Laterriere, Que., won bronze in the 1,000 metres. Montreal’s Pascal Dion registered the first individual World Cup podium of his career with silver in the 1,000 metres. Patrick Duffy, of Oakville, Ont. claimed 1,000-metre bronze.
WINTER SPORTS QUICK HITS
Erik Guay, of Mont Tremblant, Que, posted a fifth-place finish Saturday in World Cup downhill action at Val Gardena, Italy. Guay came in third in Friday’s super-G and is clearly in top form this season at age 35 ... Ottawa’s Dustin Cook sat out of the downhill to rest the shin bruise he sustained Thursday upon crashing into the fence at speeds of 100 km/h. “Still sore,” Cook wrote on Twitter. “Tons of airtime. Didn’t think it was worth the risk.” Cook cruised across the finish line in sixth place in Friday’s super-G ... Calgary’s Alex Gough won her third luge World Cup medal of the season Saturday with bronze in Park City, Utah.