Alpine Skiing

To this day, people still confuse him with Steve Podborski. They hear the last name, they know he was a skier and so his first name has to be Steve.

"I introduce myself as Edi Podivinsky and people call me Edi for the first half of the dinner party, then it's Steve," he said. "My neighbour still calls me Steve over the fence."

Podivinsky understands why it happens. Podborski was one of the fabled Crazy Canucks, the first North American to win the overall World Cup downhill title and he was an Olympic bronze medalist.

But the record book shows Podivinsky was no slouch, either. He competed for 13 years on the national team, captured a World Cup downhill in Saalbach, Austria, and remains the last Canadian to win an Olympic medal, a bronze, in alpine skiing.

It happened 15 years ago, and every Winter Games, Podivinsky watches and cheers for a new Canadian skier to be added to the Olympic medal list.

"I keep trying to imagine whose next," he said from his home outside of Toronto. "I would happily love to see a Canadian standing on the podium. Even better, I'd love to see a Canadian win and hear the national anthem played."

If ever a skier was born to greatness it was Podivinsky. Skilled and fearless, the Edmonton racer was Canada's first world junior alpine champion in 1989. Before that, he skied as a forerunner at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Before that, at 15, he was training with the national team and blowing people away.

Former Olympian Carey Mullen recalled a Canadian alpine ski team race he and Podivinsky competed in as teenagers. Mullen, 16, came in 17th. He wasn't thrilled but he figured it wasn't a bad showing since he was racing against guys who were four to five years older.

Then 15-year-old Podivinsky flew into the finish area in third place, more than three seconds faster than Mullen. Emotionally crushed, Mullen skied off behind some trees and cried his eyes out.

"I wondered if I was kidding myself ... ‘Am I good enough? This guy [Podivinsky] is totally on track,'." Mullen said. "Then, something changed in me. I figured if I can just get closer and closer maybe this guy is a gift. I changed it from a negative to a positive."

Podivinsky also benefited from Mullen, whose unbridled passion for skiing and doing everything he could to be better proved contagious. Although they started as rivals, the two became training partners and eventually friends. They were both flying high after finishing 1-2 at a World Cup downhill in Saalbach in 1994. That set the stage for Lillehammer and Podivinsky's Olympic highlight.

"It was a real cold day, crystal clear. I had a good feeling in the morning," Podivinsky said. "Right at the very top I skied a little off line, just enough to get me to take chances on the bottom part of the course. I was starting later in the pack and when I came in third I knew there was nobody behind me who was going to beat me.

"I was happy to be third. I was happy to see our flag raised."
One of Podivinsky's favourite stories about reaching the podium in 1994 occurred soon after he crashed at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville. That spill happened on the final day of training in Val d'Isere, France, and took him out of the race. Within days, he was in a Vancouver hospital recovering from reconstructive knee surgery.

"I was really groggy and Dr. Pat McConkey comes into my room, opens the drapes and turns on the TV," Podivinsky recalled. "He said, ‘[Canada's] Kerrin Lee-Gartner has just won gold. I repaired both those knees. You'd better make it back as well.'."

Podivinsky made it back for Lillehammer, Nagano (where he placed fifth) and finally Salt Lake City (24th), where he knew his career was done. On the morning of the 2002 Olympic men's downhill, he skied off to the side of the course, sat down and reflected on all he'd been through.

"The thing I'll always remember about Edi at his peak was that he always rose to the challenge," Alpine Canada chief athletics officer Max Gartner said. "He had that extra little gear when he needed it. He was the ultimate talent."

After retiring at 31, Podivinsky embraced his other interest - the world of finance. While competing, he studied for his chartered financial analyst exams and would spend time on trading floors during the off-season. Today, he's vice-president of global equity sales for Royal Bank of Canada and a father of three, two of whom are already into skiing.

It was all a wonderful ride, he said of his racing days.
Even if it meant being mistake for Steve Podborski?
"I'm happy when my wife doesn't call me Steve."