Alpine Skiing

By now, it probably shouldn't be a surprise that Switzerland's Didier Cuche continues to redefine late career success in alpine skiing.

In the last three seasons, the 35-year-old, who made his World Cup debut back in 1993, has won two overall downhill titles and one in giant slalom.

Earlier this year at the World Alpine Championships, he won the Super G and finished second in the downhill behind Canada's John Kucera. In the last week of October, he kicked off the new season by winning the giant slalom in Soelden.

Today, in the first downhill race of the calendar, Cuche showed the same kind of dominance that he did in the first training run Wednesday, winning his eleventh World Cup race (he has finished second 23 times) by a wide margin of .44 seconds on a grey, snowy day.

Cuche now enters tomorrow's Super G here as the heavy favourite, and looking farther down the road has served notice that come February he's very much a threat to become the oldest alpine medalist in Olympic history in what would be his fourth appearance in the Games.

"I hope so," he laughed, when it was suggested he might be the favourite in every race he enters this winter. "Today is today and tomorrow is another day. I will do my best. I'm comfortable now. We'll see what happens in the next days and weeks."

Werner Heel of Italy was second, and Switzerland's Carlo Janka was third. In all, the Swiss occupied five of the top ten spots.

The race was stopped for close a half hour after American T.J. Lanning crashed, suffering ligament damage in his right knee and a possible back injury. After being attended to on the hill, he was taken by helicopter to hospital in Banff.

For the Canadian team opening a season of high expectations and intense pressure at home which will peak with the Olympics in Whistler, it was solid debut, though without a podium result. Still, by placing two skiers in the top ten and five in the first 22, the news was far more good than bad

The two skiers who showed the best form during training, Kucera and B.C.'s Robbie Dixon, finished sixth and eighth respectively.

"I skied strong," Kucera said. "There were definitely a couple of sections where I could have done better, but that's racing. It's not going to be perfect. But I think I skied aggressively, took my shot, and I'm happy with the result....I always say when you're in the top ten you're in the hunt. Top ten is a strong result. I think where I lost my speed was in the two Super G turns at the top. I got pushed a little wide. The rest of the way I skied quite well."

Dixon was thrilled with a top twelve results, which automatically makes him eligible for the Olympics - though he'll still have to fight with his teammates for one of four starting spots.

"I was really happy with it," he said "I just came out and tried to attack as best I could. This is probably one of my least favourite tracks, so if I could do well here - it's pretty sweet."

Manuel Osborne-Paradis was fast off the start before making a mistake in one of the steeper sections of the course, which cost him speed over the second half, leaving him tied for 14th place.

"I screwed up where you're not supposed to screw up here - on Fall Away," he said. "On a mountain with one pitch, you've got to nail the pitch or you won't have enough speed for the flats. I don't know what happened. I just kind of hit a bump, No excuses, I screwed up....It's unfortunate but all in all, I thought my skiing was okay."

Erik Guay, still working to round into form after back troubles interrupted his off-season training regimen, also started well, but seemed to fade over the second half of the course, and wound up in 21st place.

"My technical skiing is lacking a little bit in certain areas," he said. "I heard my time at the top was pretty good but it didn't feel right. It didn't feel like I was moving forward and being that good aggressive skier. There is a technical aspect that's missing right now and I know exactly what it is. But you know on paper its one thing and to do it is another. I'm trying to get that into my natural skiing so hopefully I won't have to think about it when I come out of the gate. It will just happen."

Just one place behind Guay was 24-year-old Louis-Pierre Helie of Berthierville, Quebec, who made his World Cup debut a year ago, and put up by far his best career result, finished 22nd after starting from the 60th slot.

Jan Hudec, in his first race back since suffering a knee injury at the World Championships in February was 35th and Tyler Nella was 41st.