Alpine Skiing

Despite the rash of injuries that have put six Canadian alpine skiers on the sidelines and claimed some of Canada's best medal hopes for the 2010 Winter Olympics, there won't be any strategy to protect the survivors by keeping them off the World Cup circuit.

Playing it safe would take Canadians out of the game, says Max Gartner, Alpine Canada's athletic director.

"You have to be in World Cups to be competitive," Gartner said in an interview.

A skier's mind and competitive instinct need to stay as sharp as the skis, he said.

"If you just went home and trained, you're not pushing the envelope, and our skiers have to go up against skiers from other countries who are pushing and performing beyond the comfort zone every week," Gartner said.

Sunday, the sixth Canadian skier knocked out with a leg injury this season - this time the right knee of technical skier Anna Goodman of Pointe-Claire, Que. - flew home for assessment of a suspected torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Goodman joins Kelly VanderBeek of Kitchener, Ont., Larisa Yurkiw of Owen Sound, Ont., François Bourque of L'Ange-Gardien, Que., Jean-Philippe Roy of Sainte-Flavie, Que., and John Kucera of Calgary on the sidelines.

Kucera, a downhill world champion, and VanderBeek and Bourque, both of whom had fourth-place finishes at the 2006 Turin Games, were considered potential medalists for the Whistler Olympic races, as Alpine Canada sticks to its target of three Olympic medals.

Canada has two World Cup victories by Manuel Osborne-Paradis of Vancouver this season. He won the men's Bombardier Lake Louise Winterstart super giant slalom in Lake Louise, Alta., in November and the downhill at Val Gardena, Italy, on Dec. 19.

On the women's side, veteran Emily Brydon of Fernie, B.C., has reached the World Cup podium twice this season, finishing second and third in downhill races on consecutive days at Lake Louise.

"The thinking is, we looked at the individuals and laid out a plan," Gartner said of the team sticking to the course and not running for shelter.
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"They don't race everywhere," he added, explaining that Jan Hudec missed racing at Beaver Creek, Colo., and Bormio, Italy, because they required specific physical and psychological skills.

"But we have to keep a certain presence in the World Cup or we fall back in the rankings and don't get good start positions at Whistler. I'd personally like to keep them all bubble-wrapped and protected until February."

This year's accidents have been partly blamed on the cold, dry winter that has settled over World Cup courses. The skiers have taken new, high-tech skis out on man-made snow, interspersed with icy patches created by the injection of water into the surface.

"And the skis are prepared for the icy surface," Gartner said. At the same time, the skiers generate greater force than ever before as they carve through turns in the man-made snow, forces for which human knees and ligaments aren't prepared.

The Whistler courses won't have the same treacherous man-made conditions as skiers have seen on the World Cup trail in Europe, he said. Because of the proximity of the Pacific Ocean, the air and the natural snow contain more moisture.

"Weather will be a challenge and visibility will be key," Gartner said.

Not only Canadians have been injured. French slalom star Jean-Baptiste Grange blew out a knee; American T.J. Lanning suffered a broken vertebrae in his neck; Austrian Nicole Hosp will miss the Olympics because of a knee injury. Swiss teen Lara Gut is questionable because of a dislocated hip, and even U.S. wonder woman Lindsey Vonn bruised an arm last week.

"I was hoping 2009 was over and 2010 would be different, but it isn't," Gartner said.

He said if the talented Vonn gets injured, "it's not a question of skiers' skills or training. It's a sign."

Ski officials met in Val Gardena to discuss what could be done in the wake of the flurry of injuries. More turns would slow down the speeds skiers achieve, but it would also subject their knees to more torque and G forces.

"It's not an instant solution," Gartner said. "They will change the flag panels in downhill and super G because they weren't opening up quick enough, and FIS [the International Ski Federation] did sign an agreement with an Italian company to measure the forces skiers undergo in a race, starting with the fore-runners."

"In the meantime, we do want to minimize the risk, but it's not easy to do in an Olympic year when all the athletes are in the mindset that they want to be on top. One or two seconds in this sport means you drop 40 places.

"You've got to be confident, aggressive, focused," he added. "They're all pushing the limits, taking the risks, and this year the conditions are such that the consequences are high. But the stakes also are so high."