Ken Read

Ken Read

— Alpine ski racer —
Disciplines	Downhill, Combined
Born	(1955-11-06) November 6, 1955 Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
World Cup debut	January 19, 1975 (age 19) (first top ten)
Retired	March 1983 (age 27)
Olympics
Teams	2 – (1976, 1980)
Medals	0
World Championships
Teams	4 – (1976, '78, '80, '82)     includes two Olympics
Medals	0
World Cup
Seasons	9 – (1975–1983)
Wins	5 – (5 DH)
Podiums	14 – (14 DH)
Overall titles	0 – (11th in 1978, 1980)
Discipline titles	0 – (2nd in DH, 1980)
Medal record Men’s alpine skiing Competitor for  Canada

Kenneth John Read, CM BA (born November 6, 1955) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Canada. A specialist in the downhill and a two-time Olympian,^[1] he won five World Cup races during his nine-year career.

Ski racing

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Canadian parents, Read was a member of the Canadian alpine ski team from 1973 to 1983, and competed in two Winter Olympics. Though born in the United States, he moved to Canada at a young age and has resided in Vancouver, Kingston, and Calgary. Read was part "Crazy Canucks", the Canadian downhill team of the late 1970s and early 1980s, that consistently challenged the Europeans with a daring racing style.^[2][3]

Read's first World Cup top ten finish came in January 1975 in a combined event at Kitzbühel. Later that calendar year, he became the first North American male to win a World Cup race, a downhill in Val-d'Isère, France on December 7, 1975.^[4] Read went on to win four more World Cup downhill races and his point total for the 1980 season placed him second in the downhill final standings. He was the first non-European to win both the Austrian downhill Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel,^[5][6] and the Swiss race Lauberhorn at Wengen.^[7][8] These two victories complimented his 1978 win at Les Houches near Chamonix, France,^[9] in the Arlberg-Kandahar, ski racing's oldest classic event. Another victory in January 1979 at Morzine was disallowed because of a non-conforming suit due to a manufacturing flaw.^[10][11][12] His outstanding season in 1980 was marred by an unfortunate binding release, just fifteen seconds into the Olympic downhill.^[13]

Honors

Read was named Canada's Athlete of the Year in 1978 (Lou Marsh Award) and Canadian Male Amateur Athlete of the Year in 1980. In 1991 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

After racing

Following his retirement from competition in 1983, Read became a broadcaster with CBC TV Sports and columnist. He also launched the "Breath of Life" Ski Challenge which over the next 23 years raised over $3.8 million for Cystic Fibrosis research. Two movies have been produced covering the careers of the Crazy Canucks: the documentary "The Dream Never Dies" (1980)^[14] and a TV movie called "Crazy Canucks" (2004),^[15] which is based on a novel he and Matthew Fisher wrote called "White Circus" (1987).

From June 2002 to July 2008 he served as President and CEO of Alpine Canada Alpin, the National Sport Organization for alpine skiing in Canada. Under his direction, the management team, coaches and athletes moved Canada's ranking on the FIS World Cup from 14th (2002) to 6th (2008), fully integrated the alpine skiing disabled program (Canadian Para-Alpine Ski Team), which was ranked #1 in the world, secured the finances of the organization including a substantial reserve fund for future athlete development, created a long-range athlete development plan (Aim-2-Win) and published a long-range strategic plan. Over this six-year period, under his leadership Alpine Canada established three National Training Centres, worked closely with Winsport Canada to establish the first glacier training venue in North America (Camp Green at Farnham Glacier), established a snow testing lab, was a key leader within the group of sport leaders than established "Own the Podium" which enabled Canadian winter sport to take top spot (by gold medal ranking) at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, introduced the Long Term Athlete Development Plan (LTAD) and established numerous athlete development programs to create a high-performance stream for athletes at all levels.

After resigning from Alpine Canada in July 2008, he moved to the Alberta Alpine Ski Association to work with younger athletes and athlete development programs, between September 2008 and May 2010. In May 2010 Read was named Director, Winter Sport for Own The Podium (OTP), Canada's high performance program supporting athletes and National Sport Organizations in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, resigning in April 2013. In this period, Canadian winter sport moved into the #1 position in both gold medal and total medal count, topping out with 19 gold medals and 37 total medals in 2012 as ranked by World Championship results.

Read has been active within Canadian and international sport for over 40 years, initially as the founding Chair of the Canadian Olympic Association Athletes Council and subsequently member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes Commission (1985–1998). He served as Chef de Mission for the 1992 Canadian Team to Barcelona, where the Canadian Team won 18 medals including a record 7 gold medals. In 1988, Read was named to the International Ski Federation's (FIS) Alpine Committee Executive Board, overseeing the discipline of alpine skiing. More recently Read was named to lead the FIS Youth and Children's Coordination Group and Alpine Youth and Children's committee.

As of October 2006, Read is a co-owner of the Mount Norquay ski resort in Banff National Park.^[16] and resides in Calgary with his wife Lynda (née Robbins, a former racer with Canadian Alpine Ski Team)^[17] and three sons. He is an alumnus of the Ottawa Ski Club and Lake Louise Ski Club. The Read family are members of the Banff Alpine Racers, located at Banff Mount Norquay, Alberta.

Popular culture

• In the 2006 episode of Corner Gas titled "Physical Credit", Oscar meets with Ken Read to try to persuade him to create an Olympic medal category higher than gold. Read responds that the other countries wouldn't agree to it. Oscar says the old Ken Read would have done it, the Crazy Canuck Ken Read. Read responds that he's not crazy anymore, with Oscar acknowledging it and then claiming that he is now useless.^[18]

World Cup results

Season standings

• Points were only awarded for top ten finishes (see scoring system).

Race podiums

• 5 wins (5 DH)
• 14 podiums (14 DH), 40 top tens (35 DH, 5 K)

Season	Date	Location	Discipline	Place
1976	7 Dec 1975	Val-d'Isère, France	Downhill	1st
1978	11 Feb 1978	Les Houches, France	Downhill	1st
1979	10 Dec 1978	Schladming, Austria	Downhill	1st
	10 Dec 1978	Val Gardena, Italy	Downhill	3rd
	14 Jan 1979	Crans-Montana, Switzerland	Downhill	3rd
1980	12 Jan 1980	Kitzbühel, Austria	Downhill	1st
	18 Jan 1980	Wengen, Switzerland	Downhill	1st
	19 Jan 1980		Downhill	2nd
1981	7 Dec 1980	Val-d'Isère, France	Downhill	2nd
1982	21 Dec 1981	Crans-Montana, Switzerland	Downhill	3rd
	15 Jan 1982	Kitzbühel, Austria	Downhill	3rd
	16 Jan 1982		Downhill	3rd
1983	10 Jan 1983	Val-d'Isère, France	Downhill	2nd
	22 Jan 1983	Kitzbühel, Austria	Downhill	3rd

• A victory in 1979 on January 6 was disallowed after a protest due to a nonconforming racing suit.^[10][11][12]

References

External links

• Ken Read at the International Ski Federation
• FIS-ski.com – Ken Read – World Cup season standings
• Ski-db.com – Ken Read – results
• Sports Reference.com – Olympic results – Ken Read
• Canada's Sports Hall of Fame – Ken Read
• Canadian Ski Hall of Fame – Ken Read
• Alberta Alpine