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.