The Canadian Cowboy Lake Louise drought is over.
For just the second time in five years, Manuel Osborne-Paradis sated Canada’s thirst for a world cup medal on home soil, Saturday (Nov. 29).
The 30 year old won silver in the men’s downhill with a masterful performance, finishing .14 seconds behind Kjetil Jansrud of Norway for Canada’s first medal in Lake Louise since 2009. Even though it’s been four years since his last world cup win, Osborne-Paradis said he was expecting more.
“I thought I could have pulled out a better result. I think I had a lot more in the tank, but so did Jansrud. It worked out that I still have a podium and that’s nice. There’s been too many fourths and fifths between my last podiums, so I’m really happy to be standing here,” said Osborne-Paradis.
He won gold in Lake Louise 2009 – the last Canadian to win on home soil – and this time Osborne-Paradis actually tied for second with Guillermo Fayed of France.
“It’s the first race of the year. To knock off 80 points on the overall is huge,” Osborne-Paradis said.
The Invermere resident skied masterfully on the top and bottom section of the newly-crafted course at Lake Louise, only making one mistake on his run in the mid-section.
“I was fast on the top, I was fast on the bottom. I screwed up Coach’s Corner. That was not fast, and I kind of screwed up Claire’s Corner a little bit, but that’s maybe where I lost it. I’ve always said skiing Lake Louise is like skiing on marbles. The littlest mistake will cost you half a second to a second. It’s about piecing together a good run, not a great run, because a great run doesn’t really exist.”
With perennial favourite Aksel Lund Svindal out with an Achilles tendon tear, and American Bode Miller also sidelined, Jansrud maintained Norway’s dominance on a new course with fewer corners and more jumps than in years past, which favoured gliders such as Osborne-Paradis.
“It suits me a little better. (It requires) more patience on the skis, more touch on the skis. It’s not so much jamming your edge in the snow and going with it. There’s still those turns … but it’s more feel and pushing your skis down hill. It was faster, but it wasn’t by any means more dangerous,” Osborne-Paradis said.
Jansrud charged the course with incredible confidence. His previous best result in Lake Louise was a ninth-place finish in 2012, but he won two medals at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. He likened the course to “skiing on a wooden floor” and said the skiing was tough.
“Minus -35 degrees at night does something with the snow and it makes it difficult to ski on. You stay on your edge for half a metre too long, and you’re gone, so it was tough skiing,” Jansrud said. “Lake Louise is not one of our toughest hills, but it’s hard to ski fast. It makes for a really tight race every year … for me, it worked out nice.
Banff’s own Jan Hudec finished 19th and was left puzzled with his performance. He was strong on his turns, but chose to cut too much off of each line, which cost him speed. He was 1.38 seconds off the pace, but said he was skiing well.
“I felt like I had too much time. I came in, and I’d think I did the best turn ever. More often than not, I did my best turns because I was slow. You have to be a little out of control,” Hudec said.
On courses like Lake Louise, attention to detail determines who is the fastest on the day, Hudec said, as confidence alone won’t carry the day.
“There’s 80 guys at the start at Lake Louise who are confident. You go to Kitzbuehl and there are two guys who are confident, and those two are lying to themselves. You show up at Lake Louise, there are 30 guys who think they’ve got this. That puts some in a position to be complacent … you have to look for every minute detail on this course. You have to be like a sneaky cat, and nobody likes sneaky cats, but that’s what you’ve got to do,” Hudec said.
Ben Thompsen of Invermere finished 29th, while Dustin Cook was 36th. Other Canadian finishers included Jeffrey Frisch (44th) and Morgan Pridy (54th). Broderick Thompson DNFed in his debut.
