S Competition - Winter 2015

ONWARD MARCH

FOR BRADY LEMAN

FLYING HIGH Marie-Michèle Gagnon & Canada’s young guns eye the future

QUEBEC FACTORY

THE FREESTYLE FUEL BEHIND THE POWERHOUSE LA BELLE PROVINCE

ERIK GUAY

THE FAMILY MAN EYES HIS RETURN TO WORLD CUP

PERFORMANCE ENHANCED DOWN.

PERFORMANCE ENHANCED DOWN

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UPSIDE DOWN

Headed in the right direction editor’s note Canadian snowsports athletes are at a crossroads.

One direction is a path that we once travelled, an ugly journey through mediocrity (at best) where the country rarely had to opportunity to celebrate a World Cup, Olympic or World Championships medal. At the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics, a home Games, we landed a grand total of two — yes, two — medals in the snowsports disciplines, both from Karen Percy (bronze in the women’s downhill and super-G).

The other path, a more probable journey, is one that continues in the direction of success where Canadian skiers, riders and jumpers have been busy paving for years.

The maple leaf squad today has a dominant freestyle team, with medal threats in all of its four disciplines of moguls, aerials, slopestyle and halfpipe. Particularly moguls, where the Dufour-Lapointe sisters — Justine, Chloe and Maxime — have controlled the field and delivered numerous medals and titles.

Mikael Kingsbury was handed the team reins from Alexandre Bilodeau and has become the giant of men’s moguls, rarely beaten or even tested beyond the now-retired Bilodeau.

And then there’s Roz Groenewoud, Canada’s biggest threat on the halfpipe scene, who has collected her share of big titles, such as the 2013 Winter X Games, and is primed to return to her dominant ways now that she’s fully recovered from a leg injury.

Of course Canada is front and centre with the newest of the “mainstream” snowsports disciplines, slopestyle, where Olympic champion Dara Howell is joined by Kaya Turski and Alexan-

dre Beaulieu-Marchand as a legitimate triple threat for Canada.

On the alpine side, Quebeckers Marie-Michèle Gagnon and Marie-Pier Préfontaine, as well as Ontario skier Erin Mielzynski, have created a future that is bright for this alpine-crazed country, along with veterans Erik Guay, Manny Osborne-Paradis and Jan Hudec, who all head into the twilight of their careers in solid form on the men’s speed side. And young hopefuls Phil Brown and Dustin Cook, both from Ontario, have shown tremendous potential, as has B.C.’s Tyler Werry, the current NorAm leader.

Canadian skiers also continue to lead the way in the ski cross realm, with Marielle Thompson and Georgia Simmerling finishing 1-2 in the first women’s ski cross World Cup in Nakiska in early December. The men’s team features Brady Leman, Chris Del Bosco and Dave Duncan as legitimate medal threats on most competition weekends.

The Canadian cross-country team, once considered young and brimming with potential, is now of age and has matured nicely. Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey and Ivan Babikov have a veteran presence and the experience to contend, while the biathlon team, which will sorely miss Jean-Philippe Le Guellec’s presence, has some young skiers, such as Rosanna Crawford, waiting in the wings to take the step toward World Cup podiums.

All said, the Red and White flag should be waving proudly in the march toward PyeongChang 2018.

— Gordie Bowles, editor

Cover: Marie-Michèle Gagnon. Photo courtesy Alpine Canada.

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Mackenzie Investments is proud to support our Canadian athletes From elite World Cup performers, all the way to the club level winners of tomorrow, we’re committed to powering great performances.

Wishing all our athletes a successful season in the snow.

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FLYING HIGH

By Don Cameron & Gordie Bowles

It was a magical run for Canada’s snowsports athletes and teams in 2014, reinforcing its status as a winter sport powerhouse.

The one-two finish by sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe at the 2014 Sochi Olympics provided the most lasting images of the year, as they reached out to hold hands during the flower ceremony.

Canada’s depth, as Sochi proved, lies in large part in freestyle skiing as it claimed 7 Olympic medals. But emerging snowsports such as ski cross and its consistently strong Canadian team, is pulling its weight internationally. Olympic ski cross champion Marielle Thompson started this season the same way she finished last: on the top step of the podium. This time with a different teammate next to her, Georgia Simmerling.

Alpine skier Manny Osborne-Paradis kicked off his season with a downhill silver in Lake Louise, Alberta, as sidelined Erik Guay prepares to make his comeback to World Cup action in late January.

Canada’s snowboard contingent is as strong as ever, with medal threats in all of its four disciplines: halfpipe, slopestyle, snowboardcross and parallel giant slalom. And biathlete Rosanna Crawford has emerged as a contender, posting two top-5 finishes in this young season, while veteran cross-country racers Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey look to make their move to the top of the standings in World Cup racing.

In this edition of S-Comp, we break down a few of the big storylines within Canada’s nine snowsports.

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Photo: Alpine Canada/Pentaphoto

ALPINE

FAMILY MAN Erik Guay realizes, now at the age of 33, that he is a veteran ski racer. Part of it is the grueling postrace recovery. Even more telling: his mindset of yearning for home rather than a wanderlust that had defined much of the first three decades of his life.

“One thing I loved about ski racing when I was younger,” Guay said just before Christmas as he rehabbed for his season debut in January, “was the traveling and being able to ski all over the world. Now, I just want to get home as fast as possible and be with the girls and see them grow up.”

These days, as the Montreal native continues the slow climb back from injuries that saw him miss the first third of the 2014-15 World Cup slate, Guay is a father first, racer second. Guay and wife Karen welcomed their third baby girl — Marlo — in March, joining Logann (age 5) and Leni (age 2) in a household full of active personalities.

The biggest change in Guay’s life with the addition of baby Marlo? “Functioning on four hours of sleep is not ideal,” he admitted, “but you can make it work.”

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ERIK GUAY TREASURES TIME AT HOME WITH FAMILY AS HE PREPARES FOR HIS RETURN TO WORLD CUP

Marlo’s birth, Guay says, was the zenith of an up-and-down 2013-14 season.

Last December, the Mont Tremblant product broke Crazy Canuck Steve Podborski’s Canadian record for World Cup podiums of 20. A month later, he injured his left knee in Wengen, Switzerland, and suffered the consequences at the Sochi Olympics, finishing out of the medals.

Then he won the March 1 Kvitfjell downhill — his fifth career World Cup win — and returned to Canada for Marlo’s birth.

“It’s been great,” Guay said. “I had a lot of ups and downs this year and last year — I hurt myself in Wengen, had that down at the Olympics in Sochi, finished with a victory in Norway, so a lot of ups and downs, then I came back in the spring and we had a lil girl. I’ve been home since March. I’m getting to see all the months of the season. It’s kind of special.”

Special, too, is simply being able to call himself a ski racer, after an upbringing where time on the slopes was integral to the family chemistry. Guay and his brothers Kristian and Stefan

were coached by their father, Conrad.

His mom, Ellen, is an instructor at Tremblant. Stefan now is a coach with the national team.

“We grew up in a skiing family atmosphere,” Guay said. “I get to appreciate it more now that I have my own kids.

This spring we skied with my mom and dad and the girls, and it was pretty special to have three generations out on the hill. There are not a lot of sports I can think of where you can do that.”

Guay has savoured his time with the girls, but he’s eager to return to competition following two offseason surgeries — arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in March and a procedure to replace cartilage and bone on the same knee in June. The rehab meant a no-go for the Lake Louise and Beaver Creek speed races, but Guay — who has switched to Head skis after years with Atomic — is targeting Wengen (Jan. 16) for a potential return to World Cup action.

“My goals this season are to be able to come back and to be competitive,” he stressed. “I’m not looking to win a world championship or anything like that. I don’t think it’s really feasible given that

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now it’s halfway through the race season and I’m not even on snow. I would love to be back (for the Vail/Beaver Creek worlds), but have no thoughts of walking away with a medal.”

The 2010 super-G crystal globe winner, Guay will dedicate himself for another Olympic shot in 2018 at PyeongChang, where he hopes to ease the burden of finishing a mere .03 from the podium at the Vancouver 2010 Games.

Guay’s support group — spearheaded by his wife — helps him cope with those setbacks and stay on target for the long haul ahead. “She understands, too, that the ski racing thing doesn’t last forever,” Guay said. “If I can get another four years out of it, after that I will be here full time to terrorize her.

But she’s been fundamental in supporting me.”

For family man Erik, retirement will come soon enough — perhaps soon after the 2018 Olympics. But his competition lifestyle and values instilled in his youth will pay dividends as his daughters chase their dreams.

“I’m really fortunate to have this upbringing,” Guay said. “I’m very lucky my parents instilled good values in me, and I try to do the same in my kids.”

Top: Erik with Logann enjoying the summer sun.

Bottom: The entire family, including Erik’s wife Karen at left.

ALPINE ONTARIO

INVESTING IN THE FUTURE Quebec is provincial king of freestyle.

British Columbia and Alberta bring the big mountains. But Ontario takes a back seat to nobody when it comes to competitive success on the slopes.

Some of Canada’s alpine legends — Steve Podborski (Craigleith Ski Club), Todd Brooker (Blue Mountain/ Toronto Ski Club) and Brian Stemmle (Georgian Peaks Ski Club) — honed their craft at private ski clubs in Ontario. Alpine Ontario products dot the current Canadian national team and development team rosters, including Larisa Yurkiw, Erin Mielzynski and Phil Brown.

Mackenzie Financial’s return as a primary sponsor should pay big dividends for Alpine Ontario, which oversees 44 registered clubs and more than 30,000 active athletes, coaches and volunteers from four divisions.

“The return of Mackenzie Financial triggers the nostalgia there for a lot of parents who remember the investment and the time they had in ski racing,” said Brad Lashley, Alpine Ontario’s technical director. “It triggers golden memories for parents now entering the system.”

Mackenzie Investments will receive high-profile exposure on Ontario Alpine Ski Team helmets, jackets, speed suits and other apparel, as well as event-specific clothing, bibs, flags and banners at age-group events.

Alpine Ontario funding will be used for grassroots to elite development programs, training for coaches, equipment and events across the province.

“Many of Ontario’s finest racers graduated from the Mackenzie Mountain League and still credit that program for instilling in them not only the skills foundation to become champions but also a deep love for the sport,” said Scott Barrett, AOA’s acting executive director. “Having support from Mackenzie at the grassroots level right here at home as well as across the snowsports spectrum at the national level can only prove to be a tremendous boost for winter sports in Canada and our athletes across the board.”

Lashley has been architect of key changes in AOA’s development model, and the former Camp Fortune Ski Club program director is amped for what the future holds.

“The organization has transitioned to Sport Canada’s Long-Term Athlete Development model,” Lashley noted.

“We’re trying to plan for much better, more well-rounded athletes at the top end — more competitive and more aggressive and more focused on what their goal is.”

Alpine Ontario saw tangible results at the recent high-level Nor-Am competitions in Colorado, where Ontario Ski Team athletes scored points and savored some tremendous experience in competition that approached World Cup levels. Provincial racers including Ontario’s Jake Gougeon and Karl Kuus served as forerunners for the recent Lake Louise World Cups.

Lashley said he’s seen strong improvements in the technical skills of AOA athletes, and markedly improved slalom and GS skills, in recent seasons.

The aim, Lashley said, is “pushing for the development of four-event skiers, more well-rounded athletes who we feel are a more-desired property for the Canadian national team to pick up.”

Alpine Ontario has a few initiatives that Lashley is particularly excited about. The FunSki project, aimed at 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds, combines the best components of alpine and freestyle skiing in a run that challenges and excites while forcing skill development. And the organization is teaming with Snowboard Ontario to construct cross courses for ski cross and boardercross development.

Acting progressively and taking chances is crucial, Lashley said, because today’s world is more challenging than ever to recruit — and retain — skiers. He points to studies that show that cricket is Canada’s fastest-growing sport.

“We’ve got challenges,” Lashley said. “We have to always look for fun and more enjoyable ways to develop skiers and keep skiers for life.”

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SKI CROSS

THE YOUNG — AND VETERAN — GUNS OF SKI CROSS

Marielle Thompson

Chris Del Bosco

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They continue to be the worldwide standard for high-functioning, high-producing teams.

They have more mettle (and medals) than a Flint, Mich., General Motors factory. But the next generation is quietly tapping on the door, reminding the veterans that they need to work for their spot. At least soon.

Olympic gold medallist and World Cup champion Marielle Thompson, Olympic silver medallist Kelsey Serwa and eight-time World Cup medallist Brady Leman lead the veteran pack. They’re at the top of the heap and fought hard to get there, but the youngsters are closing in. Aging veterans Chris Del Bosco, one of the most decorated ski cross racers on the circuit with 19 World Cup medals, and Dave Duncan (World Cup rank of sixth) are also imminent threats for medals.

The next wave could include Tristan Tafel, 24, who has quietly battled his way to six top-10 World Cup results, including his first World Cup win in Bischofswiesen, Germany, two years ago. The former national development team alpine racer from Canmore, Alta., suffered a career-threatening leg injury at the age of 17 but battled back to return to competition, now in ski cross.

Comox, B.C., native Mathieu Leduc, despite a knee injury suffered at the end of last season, has been gaining valuable experience on the World Cup courses, and his eighth-place finish at Are, Sweden, last season has him pegged to make a move up the ranks.

And Louis-Pierre Hélie, a former speed skier with the alpine ski team (30 World Cup starts), has made the adjustments to his game to suit ski cross since he switched over in 2012.

Hélie, from Berthierville, Que., landed a careerbest eighth-place at a World Cup in San Candido, Italy, in 2012 and has a handful of top-15 finishes in the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Whoever makes the jump, the standard is high.

Photos: Michel Painchaud

It’s not as if the Canadian ski cross teamers haven’t been around the block.

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ONWARD MARCH Brady Leman and the Canadian ski cross team continue the charge on World Cup circuit

This season’s World Cup ski cross calendar is not exactly conducive to momentum: a Dec. 6 opener at Nakiska, and then, thanks to Mother Nature, nothing again until Jan. 8 in Val Thorens, France.

Brady Leman isn’t worried. He’s already been through tragedy and heartbreak. In the 2012 tour finale, Team Canada endured the death of Nik Zoricic in the 2012 finale. As Canada mourned, Leman’s chance for the crystal globe was dashed by the cancellation of that final race.

Poised for the podium at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, he broke his leg the day before the race. Last season at the Sochi Olympics, Leman finished fourth amid controversy, with Canada alleging that the three French medallists cheated by freezing their pants to make them ski faster.

“It drives me to look further ahead, another four years,” Leman said from Canada during the holiday break after finishing eighth at Nakiska. “We live in a world of four-year Olympic cycles, and I think about everything that went on between Vancouver and Sochi. It seems like a long time, but at the same time it also seems like it flew by.

“I had some bad luck at two Olympics, but I was fortunate to represent Canada this year. But I didn’t go there just to participate. It sucks the situation in Sochi happened, but at the end of the day, if I had performed a little better, I still could have brought home a medal.”

Leman and Dave Duncan — fifth at Nakiska — headline a men’s team that should contend in an ever-expanding talent pool on the World Cup circuit. Calgary’s Leman boasts eight World Cup podiums, Duncan seven, while Chris Del Bosco has amassed 19 podiums in a career marked by inconsistency in

recent seasons.

“Dave Duncan was one of the top guys on the World Cup last year and had a lot of wins, and he’s pretty motivated to follow that season up and give himself another chance at an overall title,” Leman said. “I feel like I belong there, too.”

On the women’s front, Olympic gold medallist Marielle Thompson of Whistler gave Canada a win in the season opener at Nakiska, with teammate Georgia Simmerling second.

“To finish first and second for Canada at home is fabulous,” Thompson said. “It was tight, but I managed to pull it off.”

The depth of the men’s team was evident, too, with six racers in the top 30 of the points, including Ian Deans 16th, Del Bosco 18th and Louis-Pierre Hélie 22nd. Helie is a convert from the alpine national team ranks and, according to Leman, is the team’s ace go-cart rider when the athletes savor a little down time on the road.

“The track was good,” Leman noted. “It was pretty fast, faster than I thought it was going to be. There wasn’t a lot of opportunity to make passes, and the starts were tricky. It was tough to get over the second feature.”

Failing to get over that second feature after a botched start led to Leman slipping from first to fourth in the semifinals, as he finished out of the medals. It was another mistake — perhaps another bit of bad luck — but something he insists he is done with.

“I’m exciting to start racing again,” Leman said of the European slate to start in January. “I’m sick of making mistakes in competition. Now I know where I can be and where I should be when I perform the best I can. I’m ready to go out and start proving it.”

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FREESTYLE

There are tangible reasons why the province of Quebec consistently produces world-class moguls talent.

Perhaps far stronger are the intangibles — the engaging, inspirational personalities of the champions. The provincial pride. The passion.

David Mirota, high-performance director for the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, notes the cycle of success, the snowball effect.

“Jean-Luc (Brassard) was the trigger. Alex Bilodeau winning in Vancouver was huge, and now the Dufour-Lapointes and Mikael Kingsbury …. success begets success. The whole star system is really paying off,” Mirota told S-Comp during the holiday break.

Mirota knows first hand. He grew up in Quebec, and, inspired by Brassard’s momentous gold medal from the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Winter Games, Mirota started skiing the bumps seriously, eventually progressing to the Nor-Am Cup level before pursing a coaching and leadership role.

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“Jean-Luc Brassard was the kickstart, especially in Quebec. He’s such a gentleman and such a great champion for the sport,” Mirota said. “The other piece is the cycle effect we’ve had in the past 20 years of athletes who starred in the sport moving up through the provincial team ranks and national team ranks, and they’ve brought their passion into the clubs as coaches.”

Brassard’s 1994 gold was the first of many Olympic successes for Canada, and, specifically, Quebec. Of the seven men’s gold medals awarded in moguls, three have gone to Quebec athletes — Brassard in 1994, Bilodeau in 2010 and 2014. Native Albertan but Montreal resident Jennifer Heil (2006, Torino) and Justine Dufour-Lapointe (2014, Sochi) added to Canada’s goldmedal moguls heritage.

Quebec has tremendous funding at the provincial level that bolsters the development of young athletes, plus strong facilities, including the Val Saint-Come Freestyle Excellence

Photos courtesy of CFSA

QUEBEC’S MOGULS LOVE AFFAIR

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CANADIAN TEAM IN PURSUIT OF MORE PIPE PODIUMS

Centre, water ramps and airbag stations.

“You can ski a mogul line at any ski hill, but to be worldclass, you need water ramps, airbags, a quality moguls course,” Mirota said. “Quebec has been fortunate over the past decade or so with some great facilities. Maintaining them and sustaining them from a funding side is constantly a challenge.”

Mirota points to stability at the club coaching ranks and the provincial coaching hierarchy as a factor in producing national team athletes. And the “always give back” mentality of the sport’s stars. A lot of the athletes, Mirota notes, go back to the clubs to connect with young competitors.

Bilodeau will ski over the holidays with kids at Mont SaintSauveur. The Dufour-Lapointes hold their annual girls camps in April.

“These mentors bring that star system, that passion and experience, which is recycled back up.” Mirota said.

Even Brassard, the man who started all the bumps buzz, continues to spark dreams to this day, having served as assistant chef de mission for the Canadian Olympic Team for Sochi 2014. Brassard was named Canada’s chef de mission for the 2016 Rio Olympics. “In Sochi, having Jean-Luc there as assistant chef de mission 20 years after his Lillehammer win was very inspirational,” Mirota said.

Geography, topography and lifestyle all factor in to Quebec’s winning moguls equation. Brassard told The Globe and Mail in a 2014 interview that the province’s smaller mountains and challenging weather can foster moguls development. “We’re kind of a victim of our mountains,” Brassard said. “Our mountains are very small and they suit very well a mogul course, and basically every centre has a mogul course.”

Quebec’s moguls locomotive shows no signs of slowing down. Kingsbury already has 21 World Cup wins and four World Championships medals plus a silver from Sochi.

Quebec native Philippe Marquis — slowed by injuries the past few seasons — won the season opener in Ruka, Finland, while Chloe Dufour-Lapointe — under the guidance of new women’s coach Michel Hamelin — took second.

The World Cup moguls tour was primed for North American stops in January — Calgary, then Deer Valley, Utah, and Lake Placid, N.Y., with the world’s elite stopping at Val Saint-Come for a Feb. 7 showcase.

“Having major events like World Cups every year in Quebec provides that star system where local kids get to see a Mikael Kingsbury, Alexandre Bilodeau, the Dufour-Lapointes, competing,” Mirota said. “That accessibility is huge.”

How is the early season going for the Canadian national halfpipe team? You could point to subpar performances at the U.S. Grand Prix at Copper and Dew Tour at Breckenridge. You can lament a women’s side that has been has been decimated by injuries.

Or you can check out the scene at the new halfpipe at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, a work of art fueled by the CFSA with Snow Park Technologies — builders of the X Games pipe in Aspen — that will allow Canadian pipe specialists to train more in Canada than ever before.

WHAT WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IS TRAVELED TO WHEREVER THE BEST POSSIBLE PIPE WE COULD FIND WAS. FOR US TO HAVE A PIPE LIKE THIS IN OUR OWN COUNTRY IS GREAT FOR OUR SPORT’S DEVELOPMENT, SAID TRENNON PAYNTER, CANADIAN HALFPIPE TEAM HEAD COACH. The Calgary pipe will put the Canadian team more on par with the strong U.S. contingent, which has the luxury of abundant world-class pipes in its resort scene. In a season like this one, where the emphasis is as much on development as results, a top-notch training ground matters even more.

Canada’s top pipe team is loaded — Mike Riddle, Justin Dorey and Simon D’Artois on the men’s side, and big guns Keltie Hansen, Roz Groenewoud and Megan Gunning on the women’s side. Noah Bowman, Matt Margetts, Kris Atkinson and female newcomer Cassie Sharpe round out the B Group.

Riddle finished ninth, D’Artois 11th at the Dew Tour. At Copper, Riddle was 10th, up-and-comer Brendan MacKay 15th and Margetts 18th. “Traditionally we have had a pretty good start to seasons, so that was disappointing,” Paynter said, “although there were certainly some reasons behind it that make it a little easier for us to accept those kind of results.”

Chief among the lack of a podium: The Canadian team is taking a forward-thinking approach to this season. Results matter, for sure, but developing new tricks and tactical subtleties, ramping up the confidence are tangible goals.

Bowman worked on a new twist to the 1080 at Copper.

Riddle has unveiled a down-the-pipe flat 360. Dorey used the Dew Tour to showcase his switch flat-spin 360.

That experimentation could pay off on the road to the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games. “With that approach, you sacrifice a little bit of the repetition and the fine tuning of existing skills that give you more of an immediate performance reward,” Paynter said.

Groenewoud, whose 2013-14 season was challenged by double knee surgery, managed a sixth at Breck, and Hansen, also looking to regain her form after injuries, was 10th at Copper. Sharpe is recovering from collarbone surgery but is a clear talent in the Olympic cycles to come.

“The women’s team as a whole, we’ve sort of allowed them to step back a bit and get back to being really healthy and strong,” Paynter said. “There’s less immediate pressure on them this season.”

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OTHER

Devon Kershaw

Canada’s Devon Kershaw is no stranger to the highs and lows of international cross-country competition. The country’s most recognizable cross-country skier, along with longtime teammate Alex Harvey, has shown on multiple occasions that he belongs in the world elite, flirting with stardom at times.

The 32-year-old started his dance with the upper elite at the 2010 Vancouver Games with a fourth in the team sprint followed by a gut-wrenching fifth-place individual finish in the 50-kilometre event — the Nordic version of the marathon — a mere three-hundredths of a second away from a bronze medal. Then in 2012, Kershaw served notice of his podium intentions for Sochi by finishing second overall in the World Cup distance standings with two golds, one silver and three bronze. But the 2013 season was a disappointment for the Canmore skier, with self-doubt leaving the 27-year-old wondering if he might reach the top again.

But if the early 2014-15 season is any indication, Kershaw is back, logging a fifth-place finish in Finland in late November, followed by a 14th-place World Cup in the 15-km race in Ruka, Finland.

Kershaw and Harvey, a 26-year-old star with 13 podium finishes on the World Cup since 2009, are joined on the team by veterans Ivan Babikov and Len Valjas. The development team consists of six women and five men, as well as 13 juniors waiting in the wings.

Harvey, with an astounding 54 top-10 finishes on the World Cup, has a current world ranking of fifth — his best rank to date — and appears primed to lead the team toward the 2018 Games and likely beyond.

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BIATHLON Canada’s emerging ace biathlon skier, Rosanna Crawford, knows all about success, pressure, near misses and everything in between. She’s been developing right on target and is now primed to make a big move.

The 26-year-old — whose sister Chandra won Olympic gold in cross-country skiing in 2006 — insisted that she would be in contention for World Cup medals in the 2014-15 season. And she wasn’t voicing idle reveries.

Exploding into the season with a fifth-place finish in a World Cup women’s pursuit in Hochfilzen, Austria, on Dec 14 — the best result for a Canadian woman on the World Cup since 2006 — the Canmore product proved not only to herself but to her teammates that they can reach the top.

She followed that up the next weekend with an impressive fourth-place finish in the sprint competition in Pokljuka, Slovenia, and a 12th place finish before the Christmas break.

“I can definitely feel that a podium is within reach, but I’m staying focused on the process,” said Crawford in a post-race scrum. “Wishing and hoping for a top-three won’t get me there. Skiing well and hitting targets will be the key to success.”

Crawford has been tracking impressively since her World Cup debut in 2006 — consistently mixing it up with the best in the sport, pushing into the top-20, top-15 and now the top-10.

Crawford’s emergence came at an ideal time for Canada’s biathlon squad as veteran skier and leader JeanPhilippe Le Guellec announced his retirement at the end of last season. Canada’s experienced biathlon team has posted solid results on the international circuits and hopes to capture the imagination of mainstream Canada, with World Cup and Olympic success; a tall order considering the popularity and subsequent funding of the sport in Europe.

Myriam Bedard was the last Canadian to win an Olympic medal in women’s biathlon — taking double gold at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer. Current team member Zina Kocher is the only woman on the current national team to win a World Cup medal, taking bronze at Ostersund in 2006. Canada has never reached the men’s biathlon podium at the Games but the march towards 2018 PyeongChang begins for the team now.

Photo: trainharder.com / Retired skier Jean-Philippe Le Guellec

CROSS-COUNTRY

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SKI JUMPING & NORDIC COMBINED Youthful energy surrounds the small Canadian ski jumping and nordic combined national teams as they fight for life, seeking assistance from public and private sources to keep the dream alive.

Incoming Ski Jumping Canada chairman, Tom Reid, has taken on the mission to bring financial stability to the organization, tightening the spending patterns and investing in the areas most likely to give a return to the small team of 10 athletes. The current national team members have a more structured approach to choosing which venues and competition they compete this season in the more streamlined approach.

Team leader Mathew Rowley attended his first World Cup of the season in Switzerland in late December while the women’s team, which consists of Taylor Henrich, Jasmine Sepandj and veteran Atsuko Tanaka, are targeting a World Cup in Sweden in late January. The rest of the men’s team — Trevor Morrice, Dusty Korek, Josh Maurer and Matthew Soukup — are also aiming for a January start to their season.

Alexandra Pretorius, who won two Grand Prix events in the summer of 2013 before a knee injury caused her to miss the Sochi Olympics, retired in October at the age of 18, leaving a small hole in the women’s program.

The two-person Canadian nordic combined team, Wesely Savill and Nathaniel Mah, round out the group. Savill, in his ninth season on the national team, landed a 13th place in a Continental Cup event in Utah last season.

Alexandra Pretorius, Taylor Henrich and Atsuko Tanaka on a podium in 2013.

SNOWBOARDING

Dominique Maltais

Arguably the most action-packed sport on the Winter Olympics, the diverse sport of snowboarding — halfpipe, slopestyle, snowboard cross and parallel giant slalom ­— has continuously pushed the boundaries of what is possible on snow with tricks and techniques that evolve with each passing trick.

With headliners such as Maelle Ricker, the 2010 Olympic snowboardcross champion; Dominique Maltais, a five-time overall crystal globe winner in snowboardcross; Jasey-Jay Anderson, Canada’s most decorated snowboarder and Mark McMorris, who gained Canadian praise for a gutsy bronze medal in slopestyle at Sochi 2014; there’s no shortage of storylines to follow.

The Canadian snowboard team reinforced its status as a winter sport power in 2014, highlighted by Maltais’ silver medal in Russia, followed by her winning the final World Cup of the season.

And the following — and respect — garnered by McMorris when he entered the Olympics with a broken rib suffered at the Winter X Games in Aspen two weeks before, was vast.

In his final run, McMorris executed a pair of triple-corks to claim the bronze medal and wide-spread accolades. McMorris told TSN shortly after, “It’s the best third-place finish ever.”

Entering the 2014-15 season with high hopes, the snowboard team came out of the blocks fast in a Dew Tour slopestyle event at Breckenridge, Colo., with Sebastien Toutant of Montreal and Tyler Nicholson of North Bay, Ont., finishing second and third. This result was followed by a couple of Canadian national team veterans — Caroline Calvé of Gatineau, Que., and Anderson of Lac-Supérieur, Que., — claiming a silver and bronze respectively at the season-opening snowboard World Cup competition in Carezza, Italy.

www.snowsportsculture.com / S-Competition 15

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