14 alpine skiers nominated to Team Canada for PyeongChang 2018
Team Canada’s alpine skiing team has been announced for PyeongChang 2018.
14 skiers are on the squad that will look to add to Canada’s 11 all-time medals in the sport. Nominations were based off results from the 2016-17 and 2017-18 FIS World Cup seasons.
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Erik Guay and Manuel Osborne-Paradis of Team Canada celebrate during the men’s Super-G award ceremony at the 2017 Alpine Skiing World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP)
A couple of Olympic veterans – Erik Guay and Manuel Osborne-Paradis – highlight the nominations. This will be the fourth Olympic Games for both – and both will be looking to step onto the podium for the first time. Guay has come close a few times, finishing fourth in the super-G at Turin 2006 and fifth in both the downhill and super-G at Vancouver 2010.
Guay had a strong world championship season in 2017, winning gold in the super-G and silver in the downhill. Osborne-Paradis, meanwhile, took bronze in the super-G to share that podium.
Dustin Cook reacts to finishing second in the super-G at the 2015 FIS Alpine World Championships.
Also competing in the speed events will be Dustin Cook and Broderick Thompson, both of whom will be making their Olympic debuts in South Korea. Cook won super-G silver at the 2015 World Championships and followed it up with two World Cup podiums. Thompson, the younger brother of Olympic ski cross champion Marielle Thompson, had a career-high World Cup result in December when he finished eighth in the alpine combined in Bormio.
See all of the athletes on Team Canada’s roster for PyeongChang 2018
Other returning Olympians nominated include Benjamin Thomsen, Trevor Philp and Phil Brown, all of whom competed at Sochi 2014. Thomsen has been a World Cup medallist in the downhill, while Philp and Brown both won silver in the team event at the 2015 World Championships. The team event will make its Olympic debut in PyeongChang.
Two rookies round out the men’s squad. Erik Read, who was also a member of that silver medal-winning team, is the son of famed Crazy Canuck Ken Read. Jack Crawford has been a star internationally as a junior for the past few seasons.
Team Canada celebrates their silver medal after the team event at the alpine skiing world championships, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015, in Vail, Colo. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
He won’t be the only Crawford making his Olympic debut in PyeongChang. Older sister Candace will be right there alongside him. She, too, was a team event silver medallist at the 2015 Worlds. The captain of that team was Erin Mielzynski, who will compete in her third Olympic Games. The slalom specialist has two World Cup podiums and this month posted two top-10 finishes for a confidence boost at just the right time.
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Valérie Grenier, Roni Remme, and Laurence St-Germain will all be making their Olympic debuts.
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Grenier had an outstanding junior career, winning downhill gold and super-G silver at the 2016 Junior Worlds, a year after she won bronze in the giant slalom. St-Germain ranked second in the Nor-Am Cup standings in 2015-16 and 2016-17. Remme was a silver medallist in the slalom at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck.
Alpine skiing at PyeongChang 2018 will take place at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre (speed events) and the Yongpyong Alpine Centre (technical events) from February 11 to 24.
