NORTH VANCOUVER 鈥� North Vancouver native Manuel Osborne-Paradis charged hard for the Canadian alpine ski team but couldn鈥檛 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 downhill.
鈥淚鈥檓 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,鈥� he said in an Alpine sa国际传媒 release. 鈥淎ll in all, it wasn鈥檛 the result I was looking for but I鈥檓 staying focused and we have another race tomorrow.鈥�
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鈥檚 world championships. The course in South Korea, however, wasn鈥檛 set up in a way that favoured his hard charging, true downhiller style.
鈥淭his 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,鈥� stated Osborne-Paradis after his race.
鈥淭he Olympic experience here in Korea has been really, really great. The volunteers have been amazing and I think as far as Games go, it鈥檚 been one of the best.鈥�
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