 Jan Hudec is in the minority among fellow skiers when he says going for Olympic gold is bigger than the World Cup circuit. (Sun Media/Darren Makowichuk) |
With the Winter Olympics around the corner, one would assume members of the Canadian Alpine Ski team are focused solely on the prospect of fulfilling a lifelong dream by winning Olympic gold.
Not necessarily so.
Fact is, while jacked up about the Whistler Games, many of the 38 skiers named to the team yesterday said an Olympic win would come second to winning a globe for skiing supremacy on the World Cup circuit.
"Globes are huge in Europe -- kind of like tight pants," explained Calgary's comedic Jan Hudec, when asked to weigh in on a debate of which most Canadians would be surprised to hear.
"Most skiers would rather win the globe, although this time around, because the Games are in Canada, I'd have to say Olympic gold."
Surprisingly, he's in the minority.
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"I've been saying for years if anybody ever gave me the choice, I would take the globe," said Calgary's John Kucera at a lunch-hour press conference at which an unprecedented seven World Cup winners were named to the Canadian team.
"That's when you are the best skier in the world from October to March. Winning the Olympics or World Championships are huge accomplishments, but that just makes you the best on the day."
It's an ironic take given Kucera won the downhill event at last year's World Championships with a run that made up for what was an otherwise off-year.
"As far as fame in Canada goes, the Olympics are bigger, obviously -- it would make you a household name," said Vancouver-born Manuel Osborne-Paradis.
"I would rather have a globe, though."
Same goes for seven-time World Cup podium finisher Emily Brydon.
While Olympic gold would make any Canadian skier a lifelong celebrity in Canada, eligible for corporate backing and speeches for years to follow, a globe earns instant prestige in the ski world they covet.
"It's a tough question, and I've been asked that many times," said Erik Guay, the third-most decorated Canadian skier of all time on the men's side with 10 podiums.
"From a skiing standpoint, if you get the globe, you really are the best and most consistent week-in and out. But from the significance of it all, if I had to choose between the two, I would take a gold medal. It's a life-changing, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I think you'd go down in history as the first Canadian male to win in skiing."
And potentially, he would be the first Canadian to win Olympic gold on home soil since the downhill is slated for the opening day of the Games.
As for which would translate into more riches, the jury was also split.
"Antoine Deneriaz won gold at the last Olympics, and he had a really hard time getting a headgear sponsor the next year," said Osborne-Paradis, a former World Cup race-winner who is one of 13 Canadians on the team with Olympic experience.
"You can fluke that one day, but you're not going to fluke your way to a globe."
Like Hudec, who spent the off-season recovering from his sixth knee surgery and will start the speed season Nov. 28 at Lake Louise, where he got his first World Cup win two years ago, Kelly VanderBeek believes nothing could be more golden than a Whistler win.
"As an alpine skier, a globe would definitely be more prestigious. But,as a Canadian, I'd rather win a gold medal because it means more here," said VanderBeek, who married Olympic kayaker David Ford over the summer. "I grew up wanting to win an Olympic medal, but Europeans grow up dreaming of globes."
And, apparently, tight pants.
ERIC.FRANCIS@SUNMEDIA.CA