Northern neighbors kick off spring training on home snow

After a long season of traveling from Asia to South America and hitting countless stops throughout Europe, Alpine Canada Alpin (ACA) athletes returned home in May for a block of spring training. Sunshine Village opened its lifts and mountain to Canada’s national alpine team for quality training on home snow, and the team took advantage of varied hill space and on-hill accommodations to begin preparation for the 2016-17 ski season.

“Alpine Canada Alpin is extremely thankful we have a resort like Sunshine Village to complete our training camps for all our alpine teams,” said Martin Rufener, athletic director of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team. “The men’s and ladies’ tech, speed and combi teams all benefited from a great training experience at Sunshine Village. We were granted excellent hill space to train slalom, giant slalom and speed disciplines. The snow quality was fantastic and being able to train in Canada in the spring is a big asset for our athletes who have been traveling the world for months. … It has been a great few weeks of valuable training.”

For the alpine team, it was a unique opportunity to come together after months on the road and connect as a team.

“After months on the road and skiing all over the world, it’s great to come back to Canada for spring training,” said World Cup athlete Marie-Michèle Gagnon. “Sunshine Village offers Alpine Canada Alpin athletes an unparalleled training experiencing. The generous hill space and ski-in-ski-out hotel means we can focus our energy and time to on and off-snow training. The men’s and ladies’ alpine teams don’t get to spend much together during the season so it’s great to be able to train with all Alpine Canada Alpin teams and build our team bond at spring training.”

Casey Bouius, Sunshine Village technical director, proved instrumental in facilitating lane space and ensuring ACA teams had all the necessary accommodations to complete their block of spring training last month.

“I like to host the ACA teams as it brings together the country’s best skiers in one place,”said Bouius.  “It’s a great opportunity for the public to see Canada’s best skiers and gain an understanding of what these athletes go through to compete on the world stage.  It’s of great value to Sunshine Village as it shows that we have quality snow and terrain at this time of the year when most resorts are shutting down. It’s an honor to host our national teams and we’re thrilled to have them.”

Release and video courtesy of Alpine Canada Alpin