The annual BC Alpine “Goldies” took place last weekend in Sun Peaks, to a packed room of coaches, volunteers, officials, staff members, club executives … and a legend named Nancy Greene Raine who was on stage to present the awards to the most outstanding contributors to ski racing in the province last season at the impressive Sun Peaks Grand Hotel and Conference Centre.
“It was an incredible celebration of a great season,” said BC Alpine VP, Johnny Crichton, who announced the awards. The dinner and presentations capped a productive three-day Member Summit, which included coach meetings, general member meetings and the official BC Alpine AGM. All said, 26 BC Alpine clubs attended the sessions, with over 100 members attending.
The keynote presentation by Jack Crawford, the current world champion and Olympic medalist, was a highlight. Jack walked through his career to-date, including his time with the Whistler Mountain Ski Club, discussing topics that ranged from his personal focus on excellence, the value of teamwork and diversity in training. Other marquee speakers included Lene Puntervold and Claude Lebreux, who presented from Norway on the topic of Norwegian motor skills philosophies and their approach to training in various sports. It was an inspiring presentation which included interviews from Norwegian athletes and coaches, as well as U16 skiers in the impressive Olympic Training Centre in Oslo, as a coach walked them through a creative training program.
Below are the winners from all categories. Congratulations to all the winners!
We are looking forward to hosting more than 100 club coaches, executives, official and general members this weekend, October 13-15, at the beautiful Sun Peaks Grand Hotel in Sun Peaks. This year’s Member Summit/AGM is shaping up to be an exciting, informative and entertaining event; we are excited to announce our stellar lineup of guest speakers.
Jack Crawford, Olympic Bronze Medalist – “My journey through the club system”
James (Jack) Crawford was born in Toronto on May 3, 1997. He began skiing with his parents, sister, and cousins at the age of three at the Georgian Peaks Ski Club in Thornbury, Ontario. The Crawford family has a tradition of ski racers beginning with his aunt Judy Crawford Rawley, who was on the National team from 1967-1974 and his father, Angus, and his uncles, following closely behind. Jack attended Primary school and part of high school in Toronto before finishing up at Whistler Secondary in Whistler. In his spare time, Jack loves to surf, waterski, golf, road bike and mountain bike, as well as spend time with his family and friends in Whistler and Ontario. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a lot of spare time! Jack progressed through Nancy Greene, K1, and K2 with the Georgian Peaks Ski Club. In his last year of K2, he moved to Whistler to ski in the mountains as a single year experience. It proved to be a very good experience for him, and his family made the decision to allow him to continue to ski out of the Whistler Mountain Ski Club. He was a multi-disciplined athlete, playing A hockey with the York Mills Hockey Club in Toronto until he was 15. After his first year of FIS and at the age of 17, he was named to the National Development Team, and in 2016-2017, he was named to the senior national team.
Jack Crawford
Jack Crawford
Lene Puntervold, Norwegian Olympic Training Center: “The Norwegian motor skills philosophy: gym to on-snow“
Lene has been a Coach Specialist in the Motor Skill Department of Olympiatoppen since 2008, working with national teams and top athletes in the following sports:
Lene’s background includes football, tennis, swimming and theatre, but most importantly, 15 years competing as a rhythmic gymnast, and then coaching the Norwegian rhythmic gymnastics team. After receiving a BA in contemporary dance, Lene worked as a professional dancer before joining Olympiatoppen. She also teaches 1st year dance students at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.
Lene Puntervold
Claude Lebreux
Claude Lebreux, Norwegian Olympic Training Center: “The Norwegian motor skills philosophy: gym to on-snow”
Claude is a Coach Specialist in the Motor Skill Department at Olympiatoppen, working with national teams and top athletes in the following sports:
Alpine – Men and Women, Freestyle, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined, Handball, Football, Track and Field (middle & long distance runners), Rifle Shooting, Skateboarding
A former competitive gymnast, he studied coaching at the Sport University in Nice, France. Claude has worked at both the club and national team levels for more than 30 years. He spent 14 years as a physical trainer for the French Freestyle Ski Team, travelling to World Championships and multiple Olympic Winter Games (Albertville, Lillehammer, Nagano, Salt Lake City and Torino) with the Europa Cup and World Cup teams.
Below are links to the full Agenda, as well as other related documents. To keep paper to a minimum we’re making these available electronically on BC Alpine’s website.
(photo left to right – Alexa Brownlie, Mila Plavsic, Dillon Prophet (guest coach), Erin Husken, Jasmine Coubrough)
The BC Women’s Training Group are currently in El Colorado, Chile, hard at work in the midst of a productive on-snow training camp.
According to head coach Montana Molyneux, a group of four skiers – Alexa Brownlie, Mila Plavsic, Erin Husken & newest Training Group athlete Jasmine Coubrough, along with Coach Monty and guest coach Dillon Prophet (Smither’s Ski Club) – look to complete 20 days of quality training during the camp which concludes on September 25th.
To date, they have worked on technical freeskiing, panelled glalom, GS training and some mountain freeskiing. It’s the first time in Chile for all the skiers.
“We experienced a lot of different weather from sunshine and blue skies on our first day to snow storms, high winds, and low visibility,” said Coach Monty. “The athletes were super productive throughout all the weather, pushing hard to make changes in their skiing. They made everyday count, finding improvements each day and working hard to pattern strong skiing through the training sessions.”
“Each athlete has a strong individual focus on what they need to do but some of the things we have been working on throughout the camp are: stacking up to start the turn, Establishing a strong outside ski before rolling on, ankle/shin engagement through the top of turn, a strong roll on into the turn.”
In addition to the training, the team has had an up-close-and-personal perspective of several World Cup teams, such as the Norwegian women’s tech team, the Austrian men’s tech team, as well as the Canadian para-alpine team and others. Next up will be a GS and super-G block next week.
“Our athletes worked hard this summer through their fitness training and the coaches are seeing that the athletes are able to get a lot done on the hill each day because of it.”
Big shout out to Shayna Little, a returning Training Group athlete that is working hard at home, coming back from knee surgery. We are excited about the progress she’s made through the recovery process and are looking forward to when she can be back on snow with the team!
(above left to right) Coach Montana Molyneux and Jasmine CoubroughGS environment
The men’s BC Ski Team have been hard at work preparing for the upcoming season, both on and off snow. The team returned in early September from a successful on-snow training camp in Chile at El Colorado.
“We got the whole spectrum of weather while we were away,” said Morgan Pridy, men’s head coach. “It’s a stark reminder of our shifting climate and precarious nature of future summer training plans. Shallow snow still provided a workable surface for the group to train, despite the unsightly and rapidly spreading dirt patches across the mountain.”
The weather quickly turned – proving the much-used weather apps correct – with metres of snow blanketing the hill forcing the team to wait out the storm.
“A small silver lining, albeit only in hindsight, was the incredibly consistent wind howling through the resort,” Pridy said. “Metres of snow hugged the snow fences and other wrinkles on the face of the mountain, but the bulk of our options for training space needed only a couple of days before it was scraped down to a productive surface once again.”
The team was rewarded “with an awesome week to finish the camp”.
What’s next Coach Morgan?
Each guy on the team is working through their own process to build themselves up towards the competitive season. Right now we all still have a lot of work ahead of us in order to be ready, but we also have a lot of opportunities to improve between now and December.
Closest at hand is finishing Septembers off-snow training and then returning to South America for our second chance at on-snow preparation. This time in Corralco, one of Chile’s most southern resorts.
The race season get’s underway for the BCST men in November. See the race calendar for details.
Photos from BCST camp in El Colorado, Chile
“Winter” arrivalChile sunsetArrival daySascha Gilbert & Oliver YoungDylan StevensSnow wall after the stormGS courseEarly mornings
