Pique Magazine, published 08-02-05

The 2005 World Championships in Bormio, Italy have been well underway for the past two weeks. The first events started on the 29th of January with the mens and women’s Super G races. The racers then switched into downhill mode for the remainder of the week and finished off with a weekend of combined events. This week the giant slalom and slalom events are running through to the 12th of February. It is a full two weeks of racing!

The final event of the Championships is a new one; it’s the “team event”. Each nation chooses four athletes, two men and two women, who will each race a run of Super G and a run of Slalom. Though I believe only two of the racers have to do both events, the other two can chose to only do one. The goal is to have your country win every event to end up with the least points at the end. The rules go something like that, I may have one or two missing but that’s the basic outline of the event. An event like this has never been held before and hopefully it will be one that they will bring back for future Championships. It should be exciting.

So far at the Championships the Canadians have posted some top fifteen results, but unfortunately haven’t seen any podiums. On Tuesday the women raced the Giant Slalom and were sitting in good positions after the first run. Gen Simard was 5th, Allison Forsyth 11th, and Brigitte Acton in 13th. In the second run the girls gave it all they had and went for the podium. But, when you risk it all sometimes you strike out. Both Ally and Brigitte fell and didn’t finish and Gen had some mistakes putting here back into 9th. And that my friends, is racing!

Still to come this week are both slalom events and both of the men’s technical events. I’m personally crossing my fingers for my teammate Thomas Grandi to stand on top of the World Championship podium. We will see what happens.

As some of you may know, I’m not competing at the World Championships. I didn’t make the qualifications that were set out for me and therefore will not be racing in the G.S or the Slalom. Instead I will race the Europa Cup circuit over the next few weeks. I took a week off and got some much needed free skiing in Whistler and am now back over in Europe to race.

I would, of course, rather be at the Worlds, but I didn’t qualify. I have dealt with it and am excited to be back and racing in the Europa Cups. I want to be there when I am ready to win a medal and I am not there, yet.

In the next ten days I will race seven races and travel from Slovenia to Spain and then to Andorra! It will be approximately 1700 km’s of driving, and that’s just to get from Slovenia to Spain!

Last week my brother was also racing some Europa Cups with the rest of his team. They were in Veysonnaz, Switzerland for a G.S and Slalom. Patrick Biggs, who has had some great results this season on the World Cup, won the slalom race and Michael finished in 8th. With those guys, it seems that these days if it isn’t one of them at the top then it’s the other. The men’s slalom team, after having four in the top 20 in Schladming’s night race a week and half ago, are going into the Worlds with momentum. I hope they kick some “euro” butt!

I am hoping for more snow to fall in Whistler so that when I return in April I will be able to do some more free skiing. But that is still a ways away, so until then I will be racing and enjoying being on the road with the team. Keep watching the results and I will continue to fill in everything that the results don’t tell! And if you have missed an article of mine in the Pique, you can also go to my website, www.brittjanyk.com to get caught up.