The Alpine Skiing World Cup returns to Canada after a pandemic hiatus and with the addition of an additional race.
A third event is added to the men’s downhill and super-G in Lake Louise, Alta., The site that traditionally kicks off the sprint season.
The first of two runs will be on Friday at the Banff National Park Ski Resort, followed by a second on Saturday and a super-G on Sunday.
The Men’s and Women’s World Cups in Alberta were canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This cancellation was felt heavily by the local economy and caused disappointment within the Canadian team, as this stage in Lake Louise is the only home stop of the year.
It’s also a mountain where Canadians feel right at home, having grown up competing in development races on the same track.
Canadian skiers hit the trail at Lake Louise resort on Tuesday for the first of three training runs ahead of the highly anticipated opening event on Friday.
“It’s big business for me,” admitted Torontonian Jack Crawford. It’s a place we’ve been fortunate enough to ski year after year for years and we know the piste so well. It is a place where we are comfortable.
“I think it’s also one of the best runs to start the year. It’s fast. It’s hard to win, but it’s not necessarily the most terrifying for us because we’ve had the chance to ski it so many times.
“You also have your family around you. You have more to do, but it’s never a chore. You are at home. You have friends and family at the bottom of the trail. ”
All skiers are looking to secure their selection for Olympic teams in their respective countries for the Beijing Games in February.
Lake Louise is the starting point of the adventure for specialists in speed events.
While the additional men’s downhill is new this year, the ladies arriving next week will compete in two downhills and a super-G for a 13e times.
The retirements of world champion Erik Guay and world medalists Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Dustin Cook in recent years have left a Canadian men’s downhill team with an average age of 24 and they are trying to prove themselves.
Crawford and Brodie Seger of Whistler, BC, put on an excellent performance, narrowly missing the podium at the world championships in February in Cortina, Italy.
Crawford was fourth in the Alpine Combined and Seger fourth in the Super-G.
Broderick Thompson of Whistler, the brother of Olympic ski cross champion Marielle Thompson, is the oldest on the team at 27. He has the least amount of racing experience, however, having lost two seasons to a knee injury in 2018.
Osborne-Paradis was the last Canadian to stand on the podium at Lake Louise in 2014 when he finished second in the downhill.