Alpine Skiing

Canadian alpine racer Manuel Osborne-Paradis was one of the least likely skiers on the World Cup circuit to stand atop the podium in the super G.

The 25-year-old downhill specialist from Vancouver has an admitted weakness on his turns, has never finished better than 13th in the super G and shouldn't have been a natural on the curvy 45-gate course at Lake Louise.

But wearing bib No..7 and taking advantage of a fresh course, Osborne-Paradis barrelled with a new-found all-out kind of racing and locked in a time of 1 minute 32.93 seconds that even the biggest guns of the super G world couldn't catch.

"Wow," a clearly stunned Osborne-Paradis said after the race, "Did anybody else expect this? I didn't."

Two other Canadians almost caught him. Erik Guay of Mont-Tremblant, Que., was bumped off the podium to fourth just 0.75 seconds off the pace and Whistler native Robbie Dixon finished fifth, 0.79 seconds back. François Bourque of L'Ange Gardien, Que., placed 27th, Jan Hudec of Calgary, who missed this race last year as he recovering from a knee injury, finished 29th, and Louis-Pierre Hélie of Berthierville, Que., was 34th.

But Canadian super G success at home with a hometown Olympics on the horizon was muted when John Kucera crashed and broke his left leg. The 25-year-old from Calgary, who had landed on the super G podium twice here before and won the World Cup downhill championship last season, skidded off his line around the toughest, steepest turn on the course, slammed into the netting and was airlifted to hospital. He will require surgery, according to team physician Chris Irving, but the prospects for the rest of the season - or his career - are unclear.

As Osborne-Paradis waited at the bottom of the course hoping his time would stick, he said, it was heartbreaking to watch his roommate being taken off the mountain in a stretcher dangling under a helicopter.

"Obviously you never want to see that," he said, "... especially when you're excited about what you're doing and then you have this." But in the breakneck world of ski-racing, he added: "It's part of the game."

With new turns introduced to the 2,374-metre course this season, some racers considered the Lake Louise super G more difficult than the familiar gliding course of the past. Twenty racers didn't finish.

But the Austrian powerhouse squad rounded out the podium. Benjamin Raich finished second just 0.24 seconds behind the lead and Michael Walchhofer was third, 0.62 seconds back.

Both agreed that with good snow conditions, and light snow falling under grey skies, the gates seemed to come faster, especially around the Fallaway section where Kucera wiped out.

"It's not easy to handle that," Raich said.

Osborne-Paradis is widely considered the most-laid back racer on the team, but with a penchant for speed. Before this victory, he had been on the World Cup podium six times: all of them in the downhill, including a second here in 2006. His only other win came last season in Kvitfjell, Norway.

He spent all summer working on the technical skills needed for events such as giant slalom and the super G. He went to Chile to train with Norway's overall World Cup champion Aksel Lund Svindal, who also topped the overall standing in the super G last year. Svindal, who's racing on an injured knee and finished 14th yesterday, wasn't surprised by Osborne-Paradis's performance, especially on a super G course with gliding sections that rides like a downhill.

"He's one of the best flat skiers that I know," he said, "... He's turned more and more into a technical skier as well."

Walchhofer, one of the best super G skiers in the world, admitted he was a bit shocked by the man who beat him.

"Now he's shown us he can ski good technical courses. Maybe this brings pressure to him for the rest of the season," he said.

Osborne-Paradis isn't bowing to any pressure even as the expectations mount for the Olympics at his home hill in Whistler. He's now assured a spot on the team in the super G.

He finished a disappointing 16th in the downhill on Saturday, frustrated by tiny mistakes and problems around gates. But he knows how to turn things around.

"This is a really good example that it just fuels the fire," said Lana McIntosh, Osborne-Paradis's girlfriend, who watched from the bottom of the course with his mother, Jane Osborne. "I can't wait to watch a replay of that run because that was insane."

So far, Osborne-Paradis's plan to rocket out the gate faster than past seasons and execute more precise turns is paying off. Now, he may just have that added boost (and 30,000 Swiss francs in his pocket) to keep it up for the rest of the season and bring home Canada's first gold medal at a home Olympics.

"I think I'm becoming more of a player within the big guys that I can do that confidently and be able to actually stand on top of the podium," he said.