CANUCKS HOPE IT ISN'T ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE
Finishing fourth pains ski squads VanderBeek, Guay seek better results
The agony of a fourth-place finish at the 2006 Turin Olympics was made even more painful for Kitchener skier Kelly VanderBeek by the fact only three-hundredths of a second separated her from a medal.
So you can imagine how she felt when in the very next race in Sweden she missed winning the super-G by a scant one-hundredth of a second. Three racers tied for first in front of her, blocking her first-ever World Cup podium.
"Honestly, it was like this horrific joke that the cosmos was playing on me," VanderBeek said. "But I just laughed. Through the summer, there was a bit of resentment starting to build in me, like, `Man, why? I deserved it.'
"Now, I'm sort of grasping. I need to step away from that because that's just a very destructive path of thought. I'm really working toward just being positive and really saying, `Okay, I want to do this. This is all I want to do.' I think you have to have that commitment to just being fast, because the other girls want to win as much as you do."
VanderBeek was in town yesterday for a news conference to help launch the Canadian alpine ski team's season and to present Northwest Mutual Funds as the new sponsor of the developmental Nor-Am Cup series.
The 22-year-old from the Chicopee Ski Club was not alone on the team when it came to finishing a frustrating fourth in the women's super-G at the Turin Olympics — Erik Guay of Montreal and Francois Bourque of New Richmond, Que., did the same — nor was she the only one in her household to know what it feels like.
VanderBeek lives in Chilliwack, B.C., with former whitewater kayaking world champion David Ford, who finished fourth at the 2004 Athens Olympics after a disastrous showing four years earlier in Sydney.
"He says now, `If you're going to copy me, I'd better go and win Beijing,'" she said, referring to Ford's preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics. "He understands what I was going through and I think have a much stronger appreciation for what he's been through now.
"It was also my first Olympics. Now, I get it. Before, I didn't really get it. It's huge and it's life-changing being an Olympian. I get it now and it's a pretty cool feeling. We're a pair of fourths. We're hoping to be a pair of medallists. It's funny how easy we could have been a pair of medalists. ... I'm not upset about fourth, but I sure wish I had the hardware."
Guay knows that feeling. Unlike VanderBeek, Guay was considered among the contenders for medals in the downhill and super-G in Turin. But a crash in training before the Olympics knocked him out of the downhill and he went into the super-G very rusty without any practice on that slope. So his fourth-place finish in that race was a victory of sorts — but not in the way he truly hoped.
"I'm not the kind of guy who dwells on the past. I've moved on," Guay said. "When it happened, I'd say it's the worst result and I was quite disappointed. Looking back, though, missing the four weeks before, I'd say it was an exceptional result. Fourth place, even though it's the first loser, I came close and I'm still satisfied."
Guay paused for a second before adding, "It's heartbreaking, though, to be fourth."
The Canadian men's downhill team start their season Nov. 25 at Lake Louise, looking to improve on a disappointing performance there last season, while the women's downhill squad gets its start on the same course the following weekend.