Heading downhill with bad karma and poor confidence

ANALYSIS Women struggling overall on slopes Clean sweep of medals for Austria

LAKE LOUISE, ALTA.—

Of all the theories floated yesterday for the Canadian women’s ski team’s grim start to this Olympic campaign, Kelly VanderBeek’s reasoning may have been the most insightful.

“ It’s just that cockiness, we’ve just got to be a little bit more cocky and just go in there believing we own that course,” said the Kitchener native. The only problem is the Canadians have nothing to be cocky about. The team had a dismal showing overall in three women’s World Cup races as their best result was yesterday’s 11th- place by Genevieve Simard in a supergiant slalom — matching Erik Guay’s top result for the men’s team in two races here last weekend.

VanderBeek’s comment has a ring of truth because in order to succeed at this level you have to have a certain edge about you. You need self- belief to propel yourself out of the start gate searching for more speed even when you’re plunging downhill at more than 110 km/ h. The Canadians entered these races talking confidently — Emily Brydon said she felt ready to win on a course she knew so well — but one wondered if they really believed what they were saying.

Granted, the season is still young, but the medal prospects for the women’s team in Turin should be tempered by a good dose of reality. There is a tendency in Canada to over inflate our medal chances heading into a Games — an uneducated media often being a main culprit. The current Canadian women’s team has accounted for a total of nine World Cup podiums in their careers, only one gold. While great strides have been made within the organization under the leadership of Ken Read and Max Gartner, there is not much depth when it comes to legitimate medal candidates on either the women’s or men’s sides. The Austrians swept the medals yesterday and the winner, Alexandra Meissnitzer,

now has 40 World Cup

podiums ( including 14

wins). Yet she talked of

still having to push

hard to make the Austria team for Turin. A

Canadian skier needs two top- 12 finishes to make it to the Games. That shows you the great divide between Canada and the powerhouse alpine nation they hope to challenge by 2010 in Vancouver.

Canada’s strongest event for the women is giant slalom with Simard, Allison Forsyth, Brigitte Acton and Britt Janyk. Brydon is considered the team’s only hope in downhill and, given her performance ( or lack thereof) here, one has to hope it won’t set her back for the rest of the season. She raced like a scared skier all week, her best result in three races a 35th yesterday in the super- G.

Forsyth, too, talked about confidence being the missing ingredient on the team presently, which will likely mean a lot of overtime for their sports psychologist, Terry Orlick.

It remains to be seen if Brydon can develop the emotional maturity to deal with the challenges ahead.

“ I’m exhausted,” she said. “ It’s not physically, it’s emotionally, because when you’re struggling, that’s where all your energy goes into being positive.” The only bright spot for Brydon is Olympic downhill layout in Sestriere, Italy, is much easier and she came fifth there last year, though Read was saying yesterday he hopes the Italians don’t ice the course down too much. Brydon never quite took ownership of her poor performance.

“ It’s happened to everyone,” she said. “ It’s not like I’m the only one who’s ever choked. . . . It’s happened to the winners. Did ( former World Cup champion Renate) Goetschel have a great couple of days? No.”

Just as Brydon said this at the bottom of the hill, Goetschel was on the course and crashed into the fence.

“ It’s because I have all this bad karma,” she said. “ That’s why.”

If only it were that simple.