SKI CROSS: Leman’s lofty goals
Finishing second in any competition — whether it’s at the Olympics or the elementary school science fair — invariably results in a nasty bout of second-guessing.
Except in the case of Brady Leman, the Calgary ski cross racer who lost out on a chance to win the 2011/12 World Cup overall title due to a tragedy he still can’t comprehend.
In ski cross, the whole point of the exercise is to make it to the finals. Leman did just that in the last World Cup event of the season by placing 14th in qualifying at Grindelwald, Sweden.
Then the inconceivable happened. Canadian racer Nik Zoricic soared over the final jump, crashed into the safety netting and suffered massive head injuries He later died in hospital.
The race was cancelled on the spot.
Under International Ski Federation (FIS) rules, in the event of a race cancellation, points are awarded based on qualifying position. So Leman dropped to second place, leaving Slovenian Filip Filisar to hoist the Crystal Globe as the top ski cross racer on the planet.
Not that Leman cared in the slightest given the devastating turn of events.
“If I had taken home the Crystal Globe that day, I would never have been able to look at it,” said Leman, 26. “I could never hold that thing and have a happy memory. So in a way, it’s good.
“And now this year, I can go chase what I thought I should have had last year under different circumstances. And I can dedicate all that to Nik.”
For the Canadian team, a season dedicated to the memory of Nik Zoricic begins Friday at the inaugural Audi Nakiska World Cup about an hour outside of Calgary.
For Leman, the goals for the year are mighty lofty: to win the elusive Crystal Globe, grace the top of the podium at the world championship and qualify for the Sochi Olympics.
Pretty impressive for a guy who has broken his leg three times — including one devastating fracture the day before men’s ski cross made its debut at the Vancouver Olympics.
Leman went to the Games as an alternate, only to watch teammate Dave Duncan break his clavicle on the first day of training.
Pressed into action the next day, Leman proceeded to break his right leg (again) in training at Cypress Mountain.
“I crashed and bent the metal rod that they had put in during the first surgery,” he said. “But I was pretty determined to do the Olympics. So I went up and did a couple more runs and tried to prove to myself and my coaches that I was OK.”
Skiing on a broken leg, Leman was actually far from OK and withdrew from the race.
“That was such an emotional 24 hours,” he said. “All of a sudden I got this realization that yeah, I was going to get to race in the Olympics. And then it was like, ‘no, you’re not.”
“Crutching up the hill the next day to watch the race I really wanted to be in was really hard. It was upsetting. It was disappointing. But at the same time, it was so motivating.”
Buoyed by that motivation, Leman religiously rehabbed the leg, only to break it again in December 2010. A year later, he returned to action and shocked everyone — including himself — by winning the first World Cup race of the season in Italy.
“It’s a fantastic story to go from three broken legs to having the kind of year Brady had last year,” said Alpine Canada president Max Gartner. “It just shows the character of a person and the perseverance — all the good things that humans have — when you can overcome challenges like that.”
For Leman, a broken leg is one thing. A broken heart is quite another, and that’s an affliction suffered by each and every Canadian athlete competing this weekend at Nakiska.
Through it all, they’re still shooting for the top.