Family and fondue have won out over world cup racing for Banff ski cross racer Louis-Pierre Helie.
The 2010 Olympian officially retired from the Canadian national ski cross team on Monday (April 4).
Helie, 30, said he’s calling it quits in order to focus on his family and help manage Ticino’s restaurant in Banff. Helie’s wife Angela is due with the couple’s first child in September.
“It was always in the back of my mind, when Angela told me we were expecting a baby. In my mind I would race until the Olympics. I was in the middle of the season, getting better and better. The last three races of the season, I raced like the last ones. Every start, every heat, I thought this could be my last,” Helie said.
After the season, he had a heart-to-heart talk with family, and his father in law, Erwin Widmer, which solidified his feelings.
“I had the best results in all my years, and my overall ranking was really good. But in my mind, I could see Angela struggling with sickness, working at the restaurant. Erwin showed me the pros and cons of skiing, and being with the baby and helping Ange,” Helie said. “My dad said ‘the baby will be your podium.’ In 10 years, no one will remember you had a podium. They will remember you have a baby.”
Helie broke onto the scene as a speed racer in 2005, making the Canadian national team.
He cracked the top 30 in Lake Louise downhill in 2010, finishing 22nd, represented Canada at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and was 13th in Val Gardena, Italy – the best result of his downhill career. He had a bad crash in his next race at the end of the season, blowing out his knee and giving him a concussion. He came back and was extremely fast in training, but could not translate that into better results.
“My confidence never clicked. I was beating Axsel (Svindal) and Erik (Guay) in training, but it was a tough year mentally. They told me they didn’t have a spot on the team for me, since they were focusing on guys with a shot at the medals. I would have to go back to the development team. I didn’t want to do that. They told me to go try ski cross. It was right after Nic Zorosic passed away and there were lots of changes. I tried one race and loved it.”
The move extended his career by four years, as he quickly became one of the top performers on a very strong Canadian ski cross team.
He is coming off the best season of his career, where he recorded four top-10 results, including a fourth-place finish in Idre Fjall, Sweden. He was also eighth at a 2018 Olympic test event in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“Maybe my next two years could have been my best years, but I also could have crashed and ended my career that way. Ski cross is like that. Family is more important to me,” Helie said.
Helie was the poster boy for late sport specialization. He played every sport imaginable as a teenager, and had talent as a hockey player and water skier in his teens. He was ranked second in the world at world juniors for water skiing, but decided to dedicate himself to alpine when he was 19.
He had to work extremely hard to transition from alpine to ski cross, but was happy with how the switch went. It’s given him plenty of racing highlights and allowed him to move to Banff and meet his wife.
“To make the finals in Idre this year was a highlight. The Olympics in Vancouver are very hard to repeat. But the moment I crossed the line with crazy emotions is when I was 13th in Val Gardena (in 2010). Starting 56th, my training runs weren’t very good and I was not expecting much. Only a few guys starting from the back cracked the top 30. When I crossed the line and saw one-three … for me that still gives me goosebumps.”
Many athletes have tried both downhill and ski cross, but few have transitioned as well as Helie. It still took him four years to feel comfortable.
“It’s like tennis and badminton. They’re two racket sports, but completely different,” Helie said. “All the technique and the jumps, staying calm when there are other guys around, the start is important.
“This year was the first year I finally started winning starts … there are some guys who were top 10 at Kitzbuehl, but can’t get past one round. For me it was a learning process. As long as you’re learning to work, you’ll be OK.”
He’s passed on his race skis to another Banff skier – Zach Belczyk – and said the future is bright for the Canadian team.
“Zach is a really good ski cross skier – He’s going to be really good,” Helie said.
Helie will continue to learn the restaurant business and has one more race planned – the Bozo Cup on April 16 at Mount Norquay. From there, he’s asked Banff Alpine Racers if they need help coaching.
