Crazy Canucks
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The Crazy Canucks were a group of Canadian alpine ski racers who rose to prominence in the World Cup during the 1970s and 80's. Dave Irwin, Dave Murray, Steve Podborski and Ken Read burst onto the scene of a European-dominated sport and quickly earned themselves a reputation for fast and seemingly reckless skiing - and also for winning.
[edit] Legacy
Although Team Canada would eventually fade from dominance, the training methods they pioneered were soon standard around the world.[citation needed]
Legendary 'Crazy Canuck' Ken Read was named to re-build Team Canada in 2002, taking over as President of Alpine Canada Alpin. Since then the team has slowly started to recover lost glory. In 2003, Canadian skiers Melanie Turgeon and Allison Forsyth won gold and bronze at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. Canmore Alberta's Thomas Grandi started with two giant slalom gold medals in 2004/5.
The momentum than continued through the Olympic year of 2006 with several near podium finishes in Alpine events in Turin and a season total of 12 World Cup podiums. The 2006/2007 Alpine team then exploded out of the gate at Lake Louise Alberta in November 2006. Vancouver's Manuel Osborne-Paridis claimed the silver in the first men's downhill of the season stunning[citation needed] the heavily favoured Europeans.
Teammate John Kucera of Calgary then did the almost unthinkable[citation needed] winning the super giant slalom the next day on home turf in frigid conditions in front of boisterous local fans. The gold medal run was the first Alpine victory for a Canadian male skier on Canadian soil in almost 20 years. The following week when the women came through Lake Louise Kelly Vanderbeek who had previously finished 4th at the Turin Olympics, continued to Own the Podium - 2010 by finishing 3rd. By the end of the '06-'07 season the men's team had captured a Canadian record 11 podiums which included the first Canadian men's downhill gold medal in 13 years, earned when Erik Guay conquered Garmisch.
In 2006, it was announced that Ken Read, Steve Podborski, Dave Irwin and Dave Murray would be receiving stars on Canada's Walk of Fame. They would all be inducted as one group. The only other skier on the walk is Canadian skiing legend Nancy Greene.
