By the time Elizabeth Manley’s tears had dried at the end of the 1988 Calgary Olympic Winter Games, Canada had accumulated a modest five medals over 16 days of competition on home soil. The team failed to win gold and sat 13th in the nations’ medal rankings.
What a difference a generation makes.
Twenty-four years and more than $80 million in Own the Podium funding later, Canada now has nine medals in four days in Sochi, including four gold.
Beginning with slopestyle’s Mark McMorris (who first learned to snowboard at the Lake Louise Ski Resort), to the incredible Dufour-Lapointe sisters, Charles Hamelin’s kiss and Andre Bilodeau’s golden heart, Canada has had a plethora of reasons to celebrate its best games to date thus far.
But after three days of cross-country ski races, Canada’s skinny ski specialists are still trying to grab that momentum. The team had high hopes for the sprint races on Tuesday (Feb. 11), but returned with middling results.
Competing on the toughest sprint course ever built, Alex Harvey, Dasha Gaiazova and Perianne Jones made it to the quarterfinals, but failed to advance on the slushy course.
Gaiazova led early on in her quarterfinal heat, cresting the first climb in good form, but appeared to lose energy. She got caught on the corner and fell back, unable to catch the top two competitors and ended up 25th.
“My goal was to ski aggressively from the start. I went so hard up the first hill, I was pumped cresting the hill,” Gaiazova said. “If I pushed harder at the top, it could have been a better outcome.”
She’ll now focus on the classic team sprint with Jones. The duo medaled last year on the same course.
Jones found herself in a killer quarterfinal which featured several medal favourites and finished in 23rd spot.
“I got off to a bit of a slower start, but I felt pretty good. I’m happy with today,” she said.
Heidi Widmer competed in her first Olympic race and fell out of the top 30 to miss the heats. She finished in 43rd spot, just ahead of Chandra Crawford.
“I felt super prepared and ready at the start line, but it was tough out there. I gave it everything I had and am feeling good. I’m feeling in great shape and hope to start again. The whole experience of being an Olympian has been incredible,” Widmer said.
On the men’s side, Harvey stayed with the top men in his heat, but didn’t have the snap in his legs to sprint to the end. He finished in 19th.
Len Valjas finished 36th on the day to miss qualifiers. He got sick days before the sprints, but said his injured knee felt 100 per cent ready to go.
“Considering everything, I’m happy with today. I am congested and sound like crap, but felt good this morning and my knee was a non-factor. My fitness is really coming and I love this course,” Valjas said.
For others, the post-race prognosis was much worse.
“I had no speed today. I was completely (crap). My legs had no speed. I had no power or speed in the legs,” said Devon Kershaw, who finished in 56th, three spots behind Jesse Cockney, who was making his Olympic debut.
Head coach Justin Wadsworth said the men all had different ailments heading into the sprints.
“Devon was just flat, which was strange because he has had the last few workouts go so well. Alex was solid, but didn’t have a gear change on the last hill when he needed one, which could have been a bit of fatigue left over from the 30 km two days ago. Len … basically came out of bed to race today. I was proud of the effort and the way he skied today. Jess felt good, but slowed going up the last climb,” Wadsworth said.
He saw more promise in the women’s team.
“Peri skied really well. She was in the toughest heat for sure, and was good in finishing fifth behind Kikkan (Randall). Dasha skied well up the first hill, then made a bad tactical move and went from second to fifth around the turn and the race was done for her. Chandra skied well up the first hill as well in qualifying, but ran out of juice in the stadium.
“Heidi, like Jess, never really got it going, but good for her to get an Olympic sprint race under her belt. She’s also been dealing with tendonitis for almost two weeks now, so that affected her a bit.”
With seven races left for the team, the head coach isn’t giving up on the Games.
“We’ll keep our heads up. We’ve been down before and rallied and we’ll come back fighting.”
