North Vancouver native Manuel Osborne-Paradis charged hard for the Canadian alpine ski team but couldn’t come up with a much-coveted medal during his fourth trip to the Olympic Games.
In downhill Manny generated some buzz by winning the first Olympic training run at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre in South Korea last week, but some of that momentum may have been blown away by several postponements caused by extreme windy conditions. The race finally went off under sunny skies Thursday and Manny carved his way to 14th place, tops amongst Canadian skiers. Norwegian great Aksel Lund Svindal won gold with a winning time of 1:40.25 while fellow Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud claimed silver, just 0.12 seconds behind. Switzerland’s Beat Feuz brought home the bronze, 0.18 seconds behind Svindal.
Manny, whose best Olympic result was a 10th-place showing in Italy in 2006, said he was feeling strong heading into this week’s downhill.
“I’m happy with my skiing and my approach was good, and I think the work we put in this week and this season was on point,” he said in an Alpine Canada release. “All in all, it wasn’t the result I was looking for but I’m staying focused and we have another race tomorrow.”
That race was the super-G, held Friday, and Manny finished in 22nd spot. Fellow Canadian Dustin Cook scored a 9th-place finish while Austrian Matthais Mayer climbed to the top of the podium followed by Jansrud and Fuez.
Osborne-Paradis was hoping to capture the same magic that helped him win bronze in super-G at last year’s world championships. The course in South Korea, however, wasn’t set up in a way that favoured his hard charging, true downhiller style.
“This is not my best super-G right now and I have been working hard on fixing a lot of it at home at Panorama before heading to the Games. A top 15 or top 10 would have been a good result for me,” stated Osborne-Paradis after his race. “The Olympic experience here in Korea has been really, really great. The volunteers have been amazing and I think as far as Games go, it’s been one of the best.”
