Special Olympics Ski Racing - Cory meets Canada's Ski Team!

We enjoyed a great day at Whistler watching the men's World Cup Giant Slalom last Saturday (Feb 23rd, 2008). An early wake-up at 5:15am and we set off before 6am, getting to Whistler Creekside early enough to get a parking spot just across the street from the Creekside Gondola.

The race was held on the lower part of the Dave Murray Downhill run on Whistler Mountain, a run that Cory and I have frequently skied (see http://racewithcory.blogspot.com/2007/10/putting-plan-into-action.html) , so it was pretty cool to watch a World Cup race on a run that we were familiar with.

The race started at 10am, so we had time for breakfast, before boarding a shuttle bus to "Timing Flats" - the finish area for all the races held here this weekend. The GS is two runs, one starting at 10am and the second starting at 1pm. There were about 60 racers in the first run, with only the top 30 qualifying for the second.

Austrian Benjamin Raich (here on the course)

was the first skier down the course at 10am, and his time was good enough for 1st place after the 1st run. But the best part was watching our Canadian skiers in action up close. John Kucera (here at the finish line)

placed sixth, Erik Guay 24th, and JP Roy 29th, so 3 Canadian skiers qualified for the second run.

We were hoping to meet with Robbie Dixon, who unfortunately didn't qualify for the second run. So after his run, we looked for him as he was leaving the finish area, but we couldn't find him. We did find another Canadian skier - Scott Barrett - and he kindly pointed Robbie out. So Cory was able to meet with Robbie, whose forerunner bib hangs in Cory's bedroom (see our post of November 16, 2007, http://racewithcory.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html). Robbie talked with us for several minutes about Cory and his racing, equipment, etc.

Here's a photo of Cory and Robbie:




We also met John Kucera: (with Cory squinting into the sun, unfortunately)

And even Jan Hudec, who won the downhill at Lake Louise last December, but is not racing right now due to injury:

All of the Canadian skiers were very pleasant, and took a lot of time talking with Cory. Cory and Jan talked about Mount Hood, where Cory trained last July, and Jan laughed when Cory said he felt like a "baggage handler" at Hood (see our post of October 28, 2007, http://racewithcory.blogspot.com/2007/10/special-olympics-ski-racing-hurricane_28.html ).

We had a real thrill when John Kucera finished his second run in 1st place, everyone was cheering wildly, but subsequent skiers were a bit faster and John finished in 5th place.

All in all, a great day; Cory really enjoyed it, and we're now thinking that we really must get to an alpine ski race at the 2010 Olympics on Whistler.

A few more photos:

Didier Cuche of Switzerland doing the famous "Didier flip" - that's how he takes off his skis after a race. A big flip of his leg and the ski goes flying into the air and he catches it.

Bode Miller reaching for the finish line - something that we learned by watching this race. All the racers reach down towards the top of their boots to activate the detector.

Hannes Reichelt the race winner, also reaching for the finish:

And some good news to add to this post - Cory has found some good gate training locally. More on that on our next post.

If you've read this, please leave a comment. Cory and I would love to hear from you.

Special Olympics Ski Racing - A Race At Last!

Well, Cory finally got into a race this winter and it was his first ever non-Special Olympics event. He took part in a Kokanee Race Series Giant Slalom, on Blackcomb Mountain last Thursday February 14.

Kokanee is open to anyone 19 years and over (19 being the legal drinking age in British Columbia and with the race sponsored by Kokanee Beer, do you think there might be a connection?) and there are several races throughout the season in Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Super G. The races are divided by gender and age, with the youngest age group including those 19 to 29.

So Cory raced against older, heavier, and more experienced racers. There were 11 others in his group, and Cory finished 12th. We had talked that he might very well finish last, so he wasn't too disappointed. I wanted him to race against non-Special Olympians, so that he could better understand that he can ski much faster. His technique is getting better all the time - thanks mostly to Bob Vial at Hurricane Ski Racing - but he has not yet learned how to push himself to be more aggressive, to learn to consistently turn early and high to get a better line. So I hope he will now see how fast one can ski through a race course.

This was also the longest course he had ever seen - there were 38 gates in all. He joked about it on the chairlift after we inspected the course - "do you think they could find some room for a few more gates on that course?" (I think he gets his sarcasm from me...). And some fog rolled in for both his runs - especially the first, as you can see in this video, taken at the finish line. You can see how he stands up after the last gate, unsure of where to go because of the fog, and then tucks when he realizes he's at the finish:

But the visibility was better for his second run, taken close to the start of the race:

Cory doesn't yet have any GS skis, he was skiing on his Volkl slalom race skis, in his Atomic race boots. He completed both runs without missing any gates, so all in all, we're quite pleased with his first shot at a generic (non Special Olympic) race. And even better, he wants to plan to participate in one more before the end of the season, so we're looking at a GS on March 13, or the finals (we don't yet know what's included in the finals) on March 20.

First up, next weekend, the World Cup comes to Whistler so we're planning to attend the men's GS race on Saturday. We regularly watch World Cup ski racing on TV, Cory knows the names of all the Canadians and many other world-class racers (Manny and John and Erik, Bode, Benjamin, Hermann, and many others, including Robbie Dixon who gave Cory his forerunner bib from Lake Louise in 2006), so it should be really cool watching them all race in person. Cory seems genuinely excited by it.

So I'll post again next week.