CANMORE – If there’s one way to gauge success in a career then it just might be when seeing your face on large banners and posters around town promoting how good you are at.
Consider this your sign, Britt Richardson.
It’s been a unique week for Canada’s top prospect of downhill skiing and Canmore local, who is preparing to race the world cup on Canadian soil for the first time this weekend (Dec. 2-3) when the women’s tech races stop in Mont Tremblant.
With hype around the Quebec mountain town newly receiving the high-calibre international event, the promotion around Canadian athletes is undoubtedly at full speed. This includes the world cup medallist Valerie Grenier, Invermere’s Cassidy Gray, and the talented local 20-year-old giant slalom (GS) specialist, who will need to rest her arm after signing hundreds of posters with her face on it.
“There’s lots of different media promotion ahead of the event,” said Richardson. “I think there’s going to be a lot more eyes on us than a typical race over in Europe, and to be kind of now the athletes in the home country race ... is going to be cool.
“It’s going to be really special having lots of friends and family here. It’s going to be a really fun event.”
Trained from an early age to be one of the nation’s top skiers, Richardson, the youngest athlete on the national ski team, has had two races and two top-25 results in GS this world cup season, including tying her personal best of 22nd last weekend in Killington, Vermont.
Her major focus is consistency, meaning she wants to throw down two complete runs each race. She said her mindset is to give it everything every time she flies down the hill.
“I think it leaves a lot of room for improvement and to build off what has already come, but I think the skiing is there,” she said. “I’m struggling a little bit to put two runs together and find the rhythm when I’m doing it, but I’m … hoping to put it all together.”
CBC Sports is airing the ski races in Mont Tremblant, starting Saturday at 7 a.m. MST for the first run of the women’s GS.
The women’s world cup tech races in Quebec replaced the women’s speed event in Lake Louise, which had its final races in Banff National Park last year for the foreseeable future.
SEASON OPENER IN WORLD CUP CROSS-COUNTRY
At the FIS cross-country ski world cup, Canmore’s Xavier McKeever got a first taste of racing at the start of the season, resulting in a personal best and a top-six ranking in U23 for the 20-year-old prospect.
With the big ski nations eager to get things going, racing is tight to start off, but McKeever said he’s taking confidence from how it all went down.
“Everyone kind of comes out hot and ready to go,” said McKeever. “For me, I wasn’t sure how things were going to go this weekend and take it one race at a time. You can really see the calibre of the racing and how tight the fields were and the time gaps throughout the weekend.”
McKeever skied to 35th place in the 10-km classic, a personal best on the world cup, and was in the 40s for the sprint and 20-km mass start skate races.
“The [10-km classic] was a big confidence booster for me,” said McKeever. “Carrying that forward is huge for the upcoming races.
“After this weekend, I’m just really excited to get back out there and do more of it.”
McKeever’s solid racing landed him in the top-six U23 ranking. A nice accomplishment to start things off; however, the ski prospect said he thinks there are a lot of strong European U23 athletes not currently racing in the world cup yet, so it’s hard to gauge where he stands in that category.
Canada’s big gun on the women’s side, Katherine Stewart-Jones, had two top-25 results in the opening weekend of the world cup, including a top result of 22nd in the 20-km mass start skate.
There’s big news for lovers of cross-country skiing in Canada: YouTube is now airing live races on FIS Cross Country’s channel, which is a much more convenient venue to view overseas action.
