John Kucera (Calgary, AB) made history today in Lake Louise, becoming the first Canadian male to be on the podium more than once at a FIS Alpine World Cup race on home soil.
Kucera finished second in today’s Bombardier Lake Louise Winterstart Super G, sending the large crowd in attendance at the Lake Louise Ski Area into frenzy after crossing the finish line in a time of one minute 30.43 seconds.
“To come back home and get back on the podium again, it’s a really good feeling,” said Kucera, the 2006 Bombardier Lake Louise Super G champion.
“I really had to charge it. Today I felt good. I wasn’t sure when I crossed the line what my time was going to be but felt really good when I saw the board,” Kucera added.
This is the first World Cup podium of the season for the Canadian team following last season’s 10 podium performance. Kucera said team success was very important to each of them.
“It’s always a great feeling to make it on the podium, whoever it is. We train as a group and we are all very competitive as a group. So when you see one of your teammates on the podium, you know that anyone could be up there on any given day, so it just keeps us hanging in there. We know we had good and solid preparation,” said Kucera, now with three career podiums on the World Cup.
It was also a great day for Erik Guay (Mont-Tremblant, QC) who finished seventh in a time of 1:30.83.
“I am satisfied, I took a step in the right direction today. There are still sections where I’m slow and I don’t quite know why yet,” Guay said.
“I’m happy for John. He’s a teammate and when it goes good for him, it goes good for the team and it’s good for everybody,” he said. “It’s a great day for the team. We ended up 2nd, 7th, 19th so that’s a pretty good result.”
Austrian legend Hermann Maier won today’s race in dominant fashion, finishing in 1:29.84 for his first World Cup win since 2006. It’s the third victory of his career in the super G at Lake Louise and his first since 2003.
«For sure this is a special victory. My last victory here was in 2003 and it’s five years later so it’s unbelievable to win once again. It’s great, especially in the super G, which is maybe my favourite discipline,” said Maier.
Switzerland’s Didier Cuche was third in 1:30.52.
As for the other Canadian results today, Manuel Osborne-Paradis (Vancouver, BC) was 27th, Stefan Guay (Mont-Tremblant, QC) grabbed 41st, Jeffrey Frisch – Mont-Tremblant, QC was 52nd and Louis-Pierre Hélie (Berthierville, QC) placed 56th.
There were two Canadians before Kucera to win multiple World Cup podiums while racing in Canada. Laurie Graham had four podiums in Canada from 1983 to 1987 and Karen Percy(-Lowe) finished third in World Cup downhill races in Canada in 1986 and 1989.
“Anytime you have a podium, it’s great,” said Alpine Canada Alpin Chief Athletics Officer Max Gartner. “We’ve been fortunate enough to be on the podium every year now for three years.”
The Canadian Men’s team headed directly for Beaver Creek, USA, the next World Cup stop. There is a full slate of super combined, downhill, super G and giant slalom races beginning Thursday.
On the Canadian team’s performance:
“Super G seems to be our best event in the team. We’re missing Frank and we’re missing Jan but we are very strong. It’s probably our best event overall. And those guys are still gaining experience.”
ABOUT ALPINE CANADA ALPIN
Alpine Canada Alpin (ACA) is the governing body for alpine ski racing in Canada with more than 50,000 athletes, coaches, officials and volunteer members and over 200,000 supporting members. ACA manages the high performance programs for the athletes of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team and the Canadian Para-Alpine Ski Team who represent Canada throughout the world. For more information on Alpine Canada Alpin, visit www.canski.org.
