Canadian redemption shines silver at duals race

VAIL, Colo. – In Schladming two years ago, the Canadians missed out on a World Championship medal in the team event by mere one-hundredth of a second. On Tuesday at Vail’s Golden Peak, Canada more than redeemed itself, claiming silver just behind the Austrians, who have won this event three out of the five times it has been held at the World Alpine Ski Championships.

The Canadians were led by a fiery Erin Mielzynski and Phil Brown, both of whom represented the team two years ago in Schladming. The final round and the gold medal was ultimately decided by just 0.11 seconds in the last pairing of University of Denver senior Trevor Philp and Christoph Noesig, which solidified the win for Austria.

The Canadians were thrilled with the result. “It feels really good,” said Mielzynski. “We have two people from the same team last time, and we kind of came back with a little revenge. This time we knew we could get a medal. Last time we were surprised we got through the first round. This time we knew we could do it, but I think we were most scared about going against Germany in the first round.”

“We were definitely underdogs throughout the whole thing, being a young team. But for sure had a lot of fire, and had fun with it,” said Philp. “I spend a lot of time up here and a lot of time in the area. This altitude, I’m happy to do it here.”

Candace Crawford rounded out the four-racer team for Canada, which was just barely outpaced by the winning foursome of Marcel Hirscher, Eva Maria-Brem, Michaela Kirchgasser and Noesig.

Said Brem, “It was just a perfect day for us. Yeah, everybody was expecting us to get the gold medal, but it’s not that easy to really get it and we had a great day and it was a lot of fun. I am very happy with our gold medal.”

The Swedes, led by Mattias Hargin and Maria Pietilae-Holmner, skied to a bronze medal after eliminating the Americans in the quarterfinal (second) round.

The U.S. Team brought out some serious firepower for this event (compared to two years ago when some of the best slalom skiers opted not to participate). Mikaela Shiffrin, Ted Ligety, David Chodounsky and Paula Moltzan pushed out of the drop gates for the home team. Unfortunately, a DSQ and a DNF by Moltzan and Chodounsky opened the second round, putting the pressure on Shiffrin and Ligety. Shiffrin managed to squeak out her run against Pietilae-Holmner, but Ligety also was disqualified in the final dual against Hargin, abruptly ending the day of the Americans.

“It was really fun,” said Shiffrin. “It’s quick feet, and the crowd is having so much fun because they get to see ski racing for two hours straight, not just for one hour and then three hours in between. It’s kind of a consistent event. It’s really fun for the athletes too to have a team to depend on and to perform for. Also to be going up against somebody who’s right next to you the whole time is a totally different feel.”

“I had fun, I love these events. It’s something different than individual racing that’s all about you,” said Chodounsky. “So it’s really cool. I was hoping we’d go further. I think we had a lot of potential and it didn’t work out. It was tough. Oh well.”

The Canadians made up for the relatively slow day for the Americans, winning over the finish stadium crowd at Golden Peak and providing excitement into the final round.

“I think the most important thing in the dual is skiing the ski,” said Mielzynski, who personally outpaced Brem and Pietilae-Holmner to give her team the edge in both the semifinal and final rounds. “You can’t fight it. You can’t fight what’s there. You just have to be clean and just try to ski it. Over all those jumps, if you went straight and you could pull it off, you were way faster especially at the bottom.”

“It’s still a lot of nerves,” added Mielzynski. “You can’t let a team down. It’s not just yourself. And it is still rolling up a ski. It’s still skiing. Standing in the start, especially when you can hear the commentator and hear the crowd, and David versus Goliath. So it’s a big stepping stone for us coming into these races, and I think it’s just a way to bring up Canada’s morale and everything.”

The team event drew some more attention in this World Championships as it was recently revealed the competition will be considered for future Olympic inclusion.

“I think the public likes it and for us it’s something different, but also very exhausting because we are not use to getting down four runs,” said Brem. “As you can see with my skiing my first two runs were pretty good and the last two were a little bit difficult. But, yeah, I would like to have this at the Olynpics, yeah it’s new and a little bit different.”

See more photos from this race here. 

The Scoop

By Hank McKee

World Championship nations team event, Feb. 10, 2015, Vail, Colo.:

• It is the seventh of 11 events on the 2015 Alpine World Ski Championship schedule. … The team event has been a staple of the World Championships since 2005.
• Austria has only lost to France in a World Championship team event.
• The gold medal Austrian team was made up of Eva-Marie Brem, Marcel Hirscher, Michaela Kirchgasser, Christoph Noesig, Nicole Hosp, and Philipp Schoerghofer. Canadians earning silver medals were Erin Mielzynski, Phil Brown, Candace Crawford, Trevor Philp, Marie-Pier Prefontaine, and Erik Read. … Sweden’s bronze medal team included Anna Swenn-Larsson,  Andre Myhrer, Maria Pietilae-Holmner, Mattias Hargin, Sara Hector, and Markus Larsson.
• Medal count: Austria four gold, two silver, one bronze; Slovenia two gold, one silver; Switzerland one gold, two bronze; U.S. one silver, two bronze; Canada two silver; Norway one silver; France one bronze; Sweden one bronze.

Results