As the Whistler Weasel Workers prepare themselves to build the Dave Murray and Franz's Downhill tracks for the Alpine skiing events of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, we celebrate the many recent successes of Canadian athletes who are also preparing themselves for next year's 'big event' in Vancouver and Whistler.
In particular, we would like to congratulate John Kucera for wining the downhill at the FIS World Alpine Ski Championships at Val d'Isere, and Whistler's Michael Janyk for his bronze medal win in slalom, also at the World Championships. More recently, Manny Osborne-Paradis won gold and then bronze in back-to-back World Cup downhills at Kvitfjell, Norway. See our coverage of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team results for more information.
We would also like to congratulate Whistler's Ashleigh McIvor winning the Gold Medal in Skier Cross at the FIS Freestyle Workd Championships. This follows her Silver Medal at the Feb 6, 2009 FIS Freestyle events at Cypress Bowl.
Ashley won an earlier Silver Medal at Flaine, just two weeks
earlier. Ashleigh is from Whistler and has worked with the Weasel
Workers on some of the Canadian Alpine Championships held in Whistler a
few years ago. Ashleigh is on the left, in the photo above.
Ashleigh grew up racing for the Whistler Mountain Ski club, and got into skier cross in the last few years. She also attributes a lot of her skier cross success to her experience downhill biking in Whistler, which gave her the ability to pick the fast line.
A number of World Cup and Grand Prix winter sports events have been scheduled in Whistler and Vancouver in 2008 and 2009 as a lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. These include the Whistler Alpine Skiing World Cup, held last February, when Canadian Alpine Ski Team members achieved four top-ten finishes, including two 4th place results.
Recent Canadian successes at test events in Whistler and Vancouver include a Bronze and a Silver Medal in Bobsleigh competition, a Gold and a Bronze Medal in Skeleton, a Bronze Medal in Mens Cross-Country Team Sprint, three Gold Medals in Men's Aerials and a Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal Men's Skier Cross. In addition, there have been a total of eight Gold, Silver and Bronze Short Track Speed Skating Medals won in 2008 in Vancouver, in International competiton. As well, in 2009, there have been one Gold and three Silver Medals won in Figure Skating.
For a more complete list of podium finishes by Canadian athletes on the World Cup or Grand Prix circuits in Olympic events during the 2008-2009 season click here for TSN's Podium Tracker. Check it out. As of Feb 23, 2009, TSN has recorded a total of 134 podium finishes in Winter Sports by Canadian athletes this season, including five in Alpine Skiing.
There
will be yet another sport event in Whistler in 2009 when the
International Paralympic Committee brings the Disabled World Cup to
lower Franz's Run in February, 2009. Many Whistler Weasel Workers
will be assisting the IPC in setting up and runing these races.
