Three years following the death of Canada’s sweetheart Sarah Burke, the slopestyle skier continues to inspire. “I’m always thinking about her,” says freestyle champ Mike Riddle. “I have a Sarah sticker on my skis and when I’m competing I wear a wristband and a sticker on my helmet…”
After winning the world moguls title Sunday, Montreal’s Justine Dufour-Lapointe revealed her winning secret to The Canadian Press: “I focus on the right thing and then the medal appears!”
The year was 1966 and the Austrians had suffered through a disastrous World Championships at Portillo, Chile. It was time to make significant changes. A nation that was built on ski tourism needed to be a leader in ski racing, not an also-ran.
Canada’s top GS skier scored her best-ever result Sunday on the World Cup circuit. Marie-Pier Préfontaine of St-Sauveur, QC finished sixth in the Ladies Giant Slalom at Kuehtai, Austria, saying on Twitter: “Yes. Crushed it!”
One of the most decorated World Cup alpine racers in the history of the sport, the 31-year-old Norwegian spends upwards of 11 months a year training both on and off snow. During the season, Aksel Lund Svindal endures a grueling schedule, skiing in all alpine disciplines, perennially in the hunt for the Crystal Globe – awarded to the tour’s overall point leader – something he’s won twice, by the way.
There were many European entrepreneurs who pioneered a new way to enjoying mountain life in Canada. We recognize three men who were instrumental in paving the path.
National Freestyle Coach JF Cusson takes us back to the day in 1994 when he first met the late JP Auclair: “He drops in, does a massive daffy-twister-spread-twister-spread all the way to the end of the landing and stomps it! In 1994, that trick was badass! Vini and I looked at each other and were like, “WHAT? Who the hell is that?!”
Not a dry eye was left in the house the night Sarah Burke was inducted posthumously into the Canadian Sport Hall of Fame. The freestyle skiing pioneer, who succumbed to a serious head injury in 2012, was honoured as an athlete, a builder, and an incredible mentor.
In my early days of ski racing, I skied all over the world but had only seen the insides of hotels and a handful of ski trails, salted to a firmness most people avoid. But I'd never truly experienced skiing until I hung up those stiff boards and parked my two-sizes-too-small race boots in the free pile at the dump.
Canada’s Megan Imrie — known as one of this country’s “bold, beautiful biathletes” — is hanging up her biathlon rifle to crack the university books, Biathlon Canada announced this week.