'COWBOY' SKIERS ROPE IN RECORD WORLD CUP HAUL
Move over Crazy Canucks. It's been a quarter of a century but a team of young and lightning fast Canadian skiers have swept you off the top of the mountain.
Erik Guay finished third in a men's super-G at Lenzerheide, Switzerland, on Thursday giving the Canadian Alpine ski team its 14th World Cup podium of the 2006-07 season.
That's two more than last season, two better than the goal Alpine Canada set for this season and one more than the record of 13 that was set in 1981-82. It's also the 12th podium this season by the men, two more than the 10 that the Crazy Canucks managed 25 seasons ago.
"Our goal was 12 medals for the (men's and women's) team and half way through the season we saw that the guy's team was doing so well so we just decided that we wanted to break that record on the men's side," said Guay, 25.
Guay, of Mont Tremblant, Que., finished in one minute, 18.29 seconds, trailing only race winner Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who clocked in 1:17.94 and Austria's Benjamin Raich, who finished in 1:18.07.
American Bode Miller and Liechtenstein's Marco Buechel were tied for fourth in 1:18.33, just four/100ths of a second back of Guay.
Guay, who saw his streak of four straight downhill podiums end with a 21st place finish Wednesday, said he had to dig deep to get his first super-G podium in this, the final World Cup of the season.
"I wasn't really expecting to get a podium," said Guay, who ended up third in the overall downhill standings. "I wasn't feeling too great yesterday but I felt better when I got up this morning. It's super crucial to end the season skiing well so you can start where you left off. If you end the season on a down note, you're kind of depressed. I didn't want to end the season like that so I'm really excited that I was able to put things together today."
Francois Bourque, 22, of New Richmond, Que., was 10th in 1:19.09 and Calgary's John Kucera, also 22, was 15th in 1:19.50. Based on the strength of his season opening win at Lake Louise on Nov. 26 and a third in Italy on Dec. 15, Kucera finished third overall in the World Cup super-G standings. Kucera was 37th overall last year.
But that's the way the season has gone for a team Kucera likes to call the "Canadian Cowboys".
"It's an amazing feeling," said Kucera of the season. "It's awesome to be able to contribute to that (record). It just builds our team strength."
"I think it should be the start of something big. There used to be the Crazy Canucks and now we're the Canadian Cowboys," he said of a label the men came up with one night over a couple of beers after Whistler, B.C.'s Mike Janyk and Kucera started wearing white cowboy hats and other skiers had started taking note of the team's success.
"The team sort of decided on 'Canadian Cowboys,' we think that's a pretty good name," said Guay. "We thought, the Crazy Canucks, they were great in their day but it's over. We thought Canadian Cowboys sounds pretty good."
The truth is Guay and the gang don't really care what they're called. And they understand reputations are built over time and the Crazy Canucks had many great seasons, not just one. Steve Podborski hit 19 of 20 World Cup downhill podiums during one stretch.
But there's no reason to expect a sudden end to the current parade to the podium. The team is young and improving.
"We want to move forward from here," said Guay. "We want to keep getting great results and it's really important not to get a swollen head. We want to stay focused and keep getting great results."
Now they face an increase in expectations, especially as the 2010 Olympics get closer.
The 14 podiums have surprised men's head coach Paul Kristofic.
"To be constantly on the podium weekend after weekend, it's a great feeling and it has gone better than we had hoped," he said.
CAST has a chance to add to its total this week. The World Cup finale continues with a team event on Friday, a men's giant slalom and a women's slalom on Saturday and a women's giant slalom and men's slalom on Sunday.