Canada can’t compete with big boys — yet
TOWARDS TURIN Season opener a rude awakening Team still has dreams of Turin medals
LAKE LOUISE, ALTA.—
The Canadian men’s speed team was touting this weekend’s World Cup ski races as a dry run for the Turin Olympics. What they got was a sobering reminder they’re still guppies in a pool of blood- thirsty alpine sharks. The best result in two races was Erik Guay’s 11th- place finish yesterday in the super- giant slalom, not exactly inspiring for a squad aspiring to win Olympic medals in February. It should not be forgotten that for all the progress being made on the alpine side, they were shut out at last year’s worlds. The other ski powers can afford to have their big guns misfire. Hermann Maier was 21st for his worst super- G result ever, but fellow Austrian Benjamin Raich came second. Bode Miller slid on his hip en route to finishing 18th, but Daron Rahlves, who skis in his American teammate’s shadow despite great results, captured third place.
“ Our goal is to have more guys in the hunt,” said Max Gartner, Alpine Canada’s chief athletics officer. “ If you look at the depth of field, most of our guys — Erik is 24, the rest of the guys are 20, 21 — they’ve got a lot to learn still.
“ But there’s a real good solid group of young guys we hope are going to keep climbing up the ladder and eventually we’re going to have four, five, six guys who are going to challenge.”
If you look at the grooming of yesterday’s winner, soon- to- be 23- year- old Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, it demonstrates what the Canadians are up against. Svindal, who said if he were a betting man he’d have wagered on Guay here, has had superb veterans Kjetil-Andre Aamodt and Lasse Kjus as mentors. At 24, Guay is the leader on the Canadian speed team. The Canadians are a team in search of an identity. Everyone wants to affix the Crazy Canucks moniker on every homebrew downhiller who posts a top result, but it’s an unfair label and it’s never stuck.
Alpine Canada boss Ken Read, an original Crazy Canuck, has thrown the moniker the “ Carving Canucks” out there to promote their technical emphasis, but Guay’s not buying that one.
“ Carving Canucks really sounds a bit cheesy,” said Guay, 17th in Saturday’s downhill after entering as a medal contender. “ I know the tech team’s trying to run that, but the bottom line is we need to get the results.
“ It’s true that everybody’s still talking about the Crazy Canucks. . . . I think it’s just a matter of time until we start getting on the podium and creating our own legacy.”
If there is a new legacy, Francois Bourque of New Richmond, Que., will surely be part of it. But only if he forgets weekends like the one he just had. Coming in on a high after a third- place in the super- G last season in Garmisch- Partenkirchen, Germany, and a fifth in the opening giant slalom at Soelden, Austria, last month, Bourque struggled with a 44th- place finish in the downhill and a 26th yesterday after cracking his helmet against a gate.
“ It’s not always fun, but you have to live with it,” said Bourque.
Gartner reckons the team is strongest right now in the giant slalom event, where they have two-time World Cup winner Thomas Grandi and World Cup medallists Genevieve Simard and Allison Forsyth. A pragmatic sort, Gartner says the key is to extract the positives out of all situations leading to Turin.
‘‘ We’re just getting going. We’re gearing to be in peak form in February.”