Former BC Alpine skiers, now competing for Canada on the World Cup tour, put forward world-leading performances of late.
Take “Big Rig” Reece Howden, of the Apex Ski Club, scorched the ski cross race track in Idre Fjäll, Sweden, taking a win and second place over two days of racing. Howden now leads the World Cup ski cross overall standings with 481 points, with a sizable lead over Mattias Graf, of Austria (328 points).
At the same race, Marielle Thompson, of the Whistler Mountain Ski Club, raced to third place in the women’s race, moving her into third overall in the World Cup standings.
Marielle Thompson. Photo: Alpine Canada/GEPA. 
Marielle Thompson. Photo: Alpine Canada/GEPA. 
Reece Howden. Photo: Alpine Canada/GEPA. 
Reece Howden. Photo: Alpine Canada/GEPA.
Cameron Alexander 6th at Kitzbuhel; Broderick Thompson 9th
Meanwhile over in Kitzhuhel, Austria, two Whistler Mountain Ski Club stars, scored top 10 finishes in the world’s most famous – and treacherous – World Cup downhill.
With snow falling on the 40,000 thousand fans in the grandstands at the base of the Hahnenkamm, Cameron Alexander started 27th and powered his way down the Streif course to finish sixth. In his 25th World Cup start, this is Alexander’s best result this season and his first top 10 since last season’s win in the downhill in Kvitfjell, Norway. The day before Broderick Thompson made an impressive jump from start number 39 to finish ninth, his first top 10 since a third-place finish last season in the super-G in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
Broderick Thompson 
Cameron Alexander 
Cameron Alexander 
Broderick Thompson in the start for race #2 at Kitzbuhel.
“Today felt like I skied well,” said a pleased Alexander. “I had a solid run yesterday but there were a few mistakes that I wanted to clean-up. Did my best today to do that and it turned out really well. Kitzbühel is an insane place, coming into the finish with thousands of fans cheering felt really good. I’m stoked to build on this confidence heading into the next races and into the World Championships.”
Teammate Brodie Seger and James (Jack) Crawford, both of the Whistler Mountain Ski Club, also had strong performances at Kitzbuhel with top 30 restults to finish in the World Cup points. Kyle Alexander gained valuable experience in Kitzbuhel on the most difficult race course on the World Cup.
Meanwhile, over at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Stef Fleckenstein (Whistler Mountain Ski Club) inched closer to a World Cup top 30 finishing 32nd in the super-G.
Heming Sola goes “full throttle” in second run at World Juniors
On January 25th, current BC Ski Team racer Heming Sola (Apex Ski Club) had Canada’s best finish at the World Junior Championships after a blistering-fast second run of 48.80 moved him into 14th position from Bib 49.
“I figured if I wanted to have a good day I would have to go full throttle and that’s what I did,” Sola said after the race.
See the results from the men’s slalom HERE.