Banged-up Osborne-Paradis not hopeful heading to world championship
A World Cup season that started so strongly for downhill skier Manuel Osborne-Paradis has gone, uh … well, it’s gone downhill for the North Vancouver native. After struggling for a couple of seasons following his return from a January 2011 crash in which he broke his left leg and tore his ACL, the three-time World Cup winner was second at Lake Louise in late November in the 2014-15 seasonopening downhill. When he followed that up a day later with a seventh in the Super G, it seemed like he was primed for a big season. But after that, he was 20th, 16th and 36th in the three downhills he completed and 20th in the one Super G he finished. He crashed in training in the downhill at Wengen, Switzerland, this month and the bruising and swelling led to him opting out of the downhill at Kitzbuhel last week, in part to save himself for Saturday’s FIS world championship downhill at Beaver Creek, Colo. With former world champion Erik Guay and Olympic bronze medallist Jan Hudec sidelined by injury, Osborne-Paradis is probably Canada’s only hope for a medal. But even Manny doesn’t necessarily like his chances. In seven downhills at Beaver Creek, he has finished 20th or worse six times, with a surprise fourth in 2013 probably requiring an asterisk. “That fourth was on the women’s track that year, not even the same track (as worlds),” he said in an interview last week. “Beaver Creek doesn’t suit my skiing ability whatsoever. “Now, I don’t push out of the starting gate saying ‘this sucks’. You go and try your hardest, but it’s definitely going to be one of my toughest tests as far as a worlds goes.” But he won’t write himself off completely. “Sometimes when none of the eyes are on you, that can turn out to be the easiest time to do something good.”