The World Cup Corner by Roman Torn

The 2022 World Cup season has come to a close. I have to give credit to FIS, pulling off an exciting year of racing in the middle of a Pandemic, with an Olympic interlude and everything in between.

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There were many exciting highlights, newcomers to the podium, and Crystal Globes that were not decided till the final race. Canadian ski racing had an amazing year with some pinnacle results, podiums and Olympic medals.

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There was a total of 9 races last week therefore please excuse me if I miss a run or two in the process of putting this together.

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It started with Downhills for the Men and Women on a hill that looked like a lot of fun and not your usual World Cup Finals highway. Filled with natural terrain, bumps and jumps it made the racers earn their last points.

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Women’s DH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4GSk5jftq8

With everything riding on the last 4 races, Mikaela starting from 21st position, showed her best DH skiing of the year taking the win in a discipline she skied only selectively throughout the season. With winning the first 4 races Sofia Goggia had the DH title wrapped up early, and you could see her coasting to the finish today. I am sure she is going to take some long needed time off to heal up from her SGS crash just prior to the Olympics. Marie Michelle Gagnon had a very consistent year finishing 18th overall in the DH standings

Read the race summary below from one of our racers Maika Lennox-King…

Big White was a blast! The conditions were difficult on Saturday, with a whiteout and snow. Sunday had better conditions with sun and blue skies in the morning and slight overcast in the afternoon. Despite the conditions on Saturday, whistler athletes managed to pull it together and put down great runs across the board. Whistler’s U14 group had 8 top 4 finishes over the 2 days.

The WMSC women in the top four on Saturday were Alexa Ferguson in 4th and Maika Lennox-King in 1st. The WMSC men in the top 4 on Saturday were, Kingsley Parkhill in 3rd and Dominic Reid in 1st. Bringing some experience in to Sunday’s race, most of the Whistler athletes managed to put down even better runs then Saturday. The WMSC women in the top 4 on Sunday were Alexa Ferguson in 4th and Maika Lennox-king in first. On the men’s side, Dominic Reid took 4th and Kingsley Parkhill in 3rd.

I think the WMSC athletes all made new friends and got to know their team mates just a little bit better. It did not matter if you were in u16 or u12 everyone was encouraging each other. People cared about their results but even more about their team’s results. I think everyone had a great time in Big White and can’t wait to do it again next year.

Thank you to all the coaches who were at Big White, Alex, Dylan, Jack and PO (the superhero of stoke!). A very big thanks to Drew for coming with us to give us some pointers and knowledge.

Congrats to all the the WMSC athlete who raced at Big White!

Here are some pictures from the Big White SX
Thank you very much to Samantha Vosper Duess for these links and photos!

U12
https://www.amazon.ca/photos/share/ZFPeGImHMwNwlNwLA1jPPX4VhKEE3TBDsRlTE9xf5Sn

U14
https://www.amazon.ca/photos/share/I6nKKchYbkX9aKhKb73LAQRqZuR2rd3YMn7cZjqmDiB

FIS & U16
https://www.amazon.ca/photos/share/0P7WeQJWm1ywU8H9LAJ597j1zNNHPrQ35GQq2rLxOFG

Calling all WMSC Families – U12 – FIS

WMSC U14 and U16 Spring Invitational – Thursday, April 7 – Sunday April 10, 2022

The Whistler Mountain Ski Club is hosting the 2022 U14 and U16 Spring Invitational Thursday, April 7th through Sunday April 10th and we need all parents to volunteer for this event! Now is the time to ensure you are getting in your volunteer days!

This is a large event (with over 300 racers) and will require the participation of all parents from U12 through to FIS! On Friday and Saturday will be running two races simultaneously (Slalom and GS) and that will require a mountain of on-hill and off-hill volunteers, even in the weeks leading up to the race! Almost all on-hill positions are open – assistant starters, manual timers, gate judges, course crew, slip crew, bib collectors. We have an immediate need for Chief of Race Office administration as well as many race office workers who can jump in and lend a hand!

If you are interested in planning the athlete/volunteer social (yes we can have social events again!!) please let me know. There is something for everyone off hill and on hill. Please email volunteers@wmsc.info to secure your spot. Please note, that while we will do our best to accommodate your request – we may ask you to move into another role to make sure we have all areas covered.

We’re ready to remind everyone coming from across Canada that the Whistler Mountain Ski Club knows how to put on a fabulous races series!

Extra Days | March Registration
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Extra Training Days will be available for purchase from December 2, 2021 to April 24, 2022.

Registration opens every Sunday evening and closes every Tuesdays at midnight.

Costs: U12 and U14 $75/day | U16 and FIS $80/day. For specific details visit our website www.wmsc.info | Programs |select your page (U12 to FIS) | Extra Days

U12 Extra Training Days
U14 Extra Training Days
U16 Extra Training Days
FIS Extra Training Days | Contact your coaches
Ski-up day | Saturday, April 16 at 9:00 am

We will host a ski up day for all young skiers interested in exploring ski racing and get their first taste of the WMSC. Share the word.

Learn more and register here

BBQ, Awards and Club Race | Saturday, April 23

We will train on Blackcomb on our last weekend of the season. We will have a club race parallel slalom in Gandy. A great final event to bring another great season to a close. The race will be followed by our BBQ and end of the season awards at the Whistler Secondary School Multi-purpose room. Start at 4:00 pm

Sunday will be a free ski / fun day for all.

Spring Training | Mark you calendars

As we are approaching the end of the 2021/22 season we are welcoming the 2022/23 season. We are very lucky to have access to training during May and June which will be marking the beginning of our new season and athletes will move up to their new age teams. We will take a short break and start our spring Camps on Blackcomb during May and move on to the Whistler T-Bars in June. This will allows us a return to the fundamentals in skill based training environments with great turnaround times in the T-bars. We will go for high volume and lower intensity sessions training drills and learning the timing and the line that are essential in gate training.

May camp 1 – May 5-8
May Camp 2 – May 12 -15
May Camp 3 – May 19 – 22

June T-Bars 1 – Jun 1-5 | U16 and FIS
June T-bars 2 – Jun 8-12 | U12 and U14
June T-bars 3 – June 15-19 | U16 and FIS
June T-bars 4 – June 23-26 | U12 and U14 (Snow depending)
Pricing and registration links to follow soon.

To participate on Spring camps, family memberships must be renewed and athletes must be registered to a program for the 2022/23 season. Registration opens April 19th.

World Cup Corner by Roman Torn

Another Olympic Medal for WMSC Alumni Mollie Jespen! Watch Mollie add to her Olympic medal count, this time a Silver in the Giant Slalom. Congratulations on your amazing Olympic performances.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU1Ov82gOrM

The Women’s Overall is heating up. The GS saw clutch performances by the overall leaders. The points went to Vlhova, Bassino followed by Shiffrin in that order. Canada’s Valerie Grenier continues to ski well putting in a consistent performance and the 4th fastest second run to finish 13th.

Are Women’s Giant Slalom

https://amp.cbc.ca/player/play/2011978819850

The Slalom the next day told a different story. Last year’s Slalom globe winner , Katharina Liensberger was finally back in form winning her first race of the year. Mina Fuerst Holtmann was second and Michelle Gisin third. Vlhova just outside of the top three in 4th and Michaela having an uncharacteristically slow second run put her in 9th . With these results, the overall World Cup is going to come down to the last four races with only 60 points separating the two.

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Canada’s strong slalom team had a solid effort with 4 in the top 30 led by Ali Nullmeyer coming in 13th, Amelia Smar 16th, Laurence St-Germain 20th, and Erin Meilzynski 28th .

Run #1

https://amp.cbc.ca/player/play/2012159555953

Run#2

https://amp.cbc.ca/player/play/2012174915988

The Men were in Kranjska Gora for two GS races. Henrick Kristofferson continued to ski well taking the win in the first race followed by his young compatriot Lucas Braathen taking second and Marco Odermatt 3rd.

Canada Men’s tech team had a good day with Trevor Philip placing 13th and Erik Read 19th.

Run #1

https://amp.cbc.ca/player/play/2012158531593

Run #2

https://amp.cbc.ca/player/play/2012158531593

The next day saw a very similar result at the top of the podium with Henrick Kristofferson once again taking the win. This time Stefan Brennstiener was 2nd followed by Marco Odermatt once again in 3rd. Canada Men’s tech team had another good day with Trevor Philip placing 20th and Erik Read 17th.

Run #1

https://amp.cbc.ca/player/play/2012312131566

Run #2

https://amp.cbc.ca/player/play/2012323395774

This takes us down to the wire with the last 4 races at the World Cup Finals in Courchevel/Meribel, France. To note, only the top 25 in each discipline get to go to the World Cup Finals. This presents the best of the best. Some Globes have already been determined by their respective leader having more than a 100 point over the next competitor, but there are many real close battles like in Men’s Slalom and Downhill and Women’s Giant Slalom and Overall. Have to wait for next weeks report to find out how it all goes down.

Spring like temperatures greeted a group of WMSC FIS athletes that recently ventured south of the border for a 6 race series at Mission Ridge Ski Resort just outside of Wenatchee Washington. A large field and a broken chairlift created some scheduling challenges which unfortunately forced the cancellation of one of the girls GS races.

In many ways Mission Ridge is like stepping back in time. The access road leads to a large dirt parking lot with a dated but cozy day lodge with spotty WIFI and intermittent cell service. We even saw the return of an old school paper scoreboard as Live Timing was so unreliable the timing shack simply turned off the connection.

The warm temperatures had almost no impact on the racing surface which held up brilliantly throughout the race series. For many of the athletes it was their first time riding fixed grip two seat chairlifts without safety bars but everyone agreed that the terrain made for a great race hill.

The 20 minute drive back to town each day provided great views of the Wenatchee Valley apple orchards and the spectacular Columbia River that flows right through town.

Podium highlights for the WMSC:

3rd Place: Alexa Brownlie March 12 SL

2nd Place: Alexa Brownlie March 13 SL

Other Notable Top 10 WMSC Results:

4th Place: Felix Shorter March 12 SL

7th Place: Felix Shorter March 13 SL

8th Place: Adam Usher March 14 SG

9th Place: Jack Thomas March 14 SG

10th Place: Adam Usher March 16 GS

8th Place: Ella Kaufman March 16 SG

8th Place: Ella Kaufman March 17 SG

9th Place: Adam Usher March 17 GS

Hard Charger “Attack From the Back” Awards:

Ries Holmes SL

Jack Thomas SG

Full Results can be found at