SEVERAL ski celebrities from the North Shore were recently named to the Canadian national teams that will compete in alpine and ski cross competitions next year during a busy season that will include the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
North Vancouver native and three-time World Cup winner Manuel Osborne-Paradis will be one of the headliners of Alpine Canada's speed contingent. Osborne-Paradis missed almost two years of competition after crashing in January of 2011 but he returned for the 201213 season and posted several strong finishes, including a fourth-place showing in the last World Cup race of the year as well as a win in downhill at the Canadian championships.
Fellow North Vancouver racer Robbie Dixon also made the cut and will hope to rejoin the team during the season as he continues to recover from a crash that broke both the tibia and fibula in his right leg in November.
Veteran technical skier Mike Janyk, a West Vancouver native, returns to the team as one of the slalom specialists.
On the ski cross side West Vancouver's Georgia Simmerling joins the national team for the first year as a full-time member. Last year Simmerling, participating in the prospect program, competed in several World Cup races and scored her first podium finish, a silver medal won in Italy in December.
