PHOTO BY A. HILL / COURTESY CANADIAN SKI MUSEUM era. When Canadians Devon Ker- shaw and Alex Harvey teamed up last March in Norway to win their country’s first Nordic World Cham- Th e pionship gold medal in the sprint relay, the two skiers unleashed a flood of questions. Canadians? Win- ning gold? In Nordic skiing? You gotta be kidding! razy anucks It was déjà vu in full flower, C C a sporting flashback. It was like watching the rebirth of those crazy ’s famous downhill foursome dominated (like a fox) Canadian downhillers— the World Cup for a decade. Their podium results only this time, the guys were racing on skinny skis. And instead of Kitz- were legendary, but was their legacy lasting? bühel’s vaunted Hahnenkamm, they by Michel Beaudry were winning at Oslo’s Holmenkol- len Park. But their rise to promi- photo courtesy of nence featured hauntingly similar scripts. COURTESY CANADIAN SKI MUSEUM Like their Nordic counterparts Above: Dave Irwin flies nearly four decades later, Canada’s down the course at the most famous downhill foursome 1980 Winter Games in Lake jumped to prominence at a relatively Placid, New York. He was young age. By the time they were a member of the Canadian in their early twenties, Ken Read, ski team from 1971 to 1982 The Canadian men’s alpine Dave Murray, Dave Irwin and Steve and competed in 35 World ski team at a 1982 World Cup Podborski were the darlings of the Cup downhills during his event in Val d’Isere, . White Circus. In Europe, where career. Right: Irwin cel- “Ours was a Cinderella most of the downhill racing oc- ebrates a World Cup win story,” says downhill racer curred, they were bona fide stars, in December 1976 at . “It never with their own fan clubs, groupies Schladming, . should have happened. But and hangers-on. it did, because we were able From 1975 to 1984, the Crazy to build on each others’ Canucks posted more than 100 top- success.” ten World Cup finishes. Three of sessions with the northern stars. No continental rivals. Had to ruthlessly the four skiers scored multiple wins other skiing nation had ever featured watch their spending, find ever- (with Murray just missing by a such an engaging—and successful— more imaginative ways to stretch hair). Their legacy includes a dozen alpine foursome. their inadequate budgets. World Cup victories, countless po- Which brought them attention But diligent preparation can only diums, and Podborski’s 1980 Olym- wherever they went. On the hill or get you so far. To win—and to win pic bronze medal and 1982 overall in the bars, in the betting booths or consistently—they also had to be- downhill World Cup title. Still, it the media tent, everyone wanted to lieve in themselves. was in Austria’s Kitzbühel—site of be part of their scene. And the fun- So what was their secret? How the revered Streif course—where the ny thing was, the Canadians were did they manage to hoist themselves he spectators couldn’t believe their eyes. How could this But it was more than results—it was at- boys’ legend was burnished. Racing considered way more approachable from the indiscriminate ranks of the be happening? Especially here, in the country’s temple titude. They took wild risks. Fought hard. in front of 50,000 screaming Austri- than their rivals. Way more relaxed also-rans to the pantheon of skiing’s to skiing culture…How dare these young upstarts run Reached for impossibly high goals. Yet ans on what is widely considered about everything. They just seemed near-immortals? away with the race? What the heck were these mad, new- they didn’t take themselves too seriously. the pre-eminent speed course in the to take victory in stride. world skiers up to? Still, there was something seductive And when they won, they played to world, Ken Read started the 1980s But like all “overnight” success Making the Grade Tabout their performance. their new fans like media veterans. Smiles. with a victory there that led to a tales, this one has a backstory. And “We were all very good technical No matter that their country’s history of success was negligible in Waves. Hurrahs. The spectators ate it up. four-year winning streak by Cana- that’s where it really gets interesting. skiers,” Steve Podborski explained the sport, particularly on the men’s side. No matter that their team’s And why not? The winners looked great: dian downhillers. For like their Nordic counterparts in a recent interview with Skiing budget was miniscule compared to their rivals’. Or that nobody fol- fresh-faced kids with confident, fear-noth- A stroll through Kitzbühel’s this past season, Read and his co- Heritage. “And that’s often over- lowed this kind of racing back home. These young Canucks were ing gazes. Athletes who actually looked storied streets back then was like horts had to overcome near-impossi- looked in the Crazy Canuck legend. burning up the track. Together with their coaches, they’d worked like they were having fun out there. Who a visit to a Canadian ski museum. ble barriers to get to where they got. We were all damn good athletes. hard to devise a campaign that maximized their considerable strengths truly appreciated what it meant to stand Every store window, it seemed, had Had to virtually re-invent their sport And we all came from very well- while mitigating their just-as-considerable weaknesses. And now they on the top step of a world-class podium. a Canucks’ face staring out from it. and the way they trained. Had to established skiing families.” were reaping the results. And it brought to mind an earlier Every ski shop advertised autograph work harder and smarter than their He smiles knowingly. “But we

18 | July-August 2011 Skiing Heritage www.skiinghistory.org July-August 2011 | 19 photos on this page by stephanie sloan / canadian ski museum photos on this page courtesy canadian ski museum ning. I remember going to one race in the early 1970s and the hotel had beds that sagged at least a foot! But that was nothing. Our showers had only one temperature: cold.” A long pause. “And forget about ski-prep rooms. They didn’t exist in our ho- tel. But our hosts thought that was okay for Canadians. As far as they were concerned, we were ski trash… which only made us hungrier to prove them wrong.” It also encouraged the northern- ers to re-evaluate their ski-training methods. “The decision to focus our efforts entirely on downhill was a very conscious one,” explains Pod- borski. “We knew that there were hundreds of good slalom and giant Steve Podborski racing in a World Cup event in the early 1980s. He was the first Cana- slalom skiers in Europe. Working dian male to win an Olympic medal in downhill (bronze in 1980 at Lake Placid) your way into the first slalom seed Dave Murray raced for the Canadian and also the first to win an overall World Cup downhill title (1981–1982). was hell. It took forever.” Not so in men’s alpine team from 1971 to 1982. He downhill. “It was a much simpler Podborski (left) and his teammate Ken competed in two Winter Olympics (the thing to reach the first group there. Indeed, Klammer was considered Two weeks later, in Schladming, Read (right) pose for a Canadian Ski 1976 Games in , Austria and the Not so many racers. And a bet- virtually unbeatable in those years. Austria, yet another Canadian found Association photo. 1980 Games in Lake Placid, New York). ter track. ” He laughs. “Remember, So when Canuck Ken Read man- his way to the top step of the po- His best season was 1975–1976, when he there was virtually no hill prep in aged to draw the number one start dium. And this time there was no captured four top-ten World Cup finishes. those days. You got to ski whatever for the first World Cup race of the doubt. “Dave Irwin beat Klammer He died of skin cancer in 1990. was in front of you.” season, few gave him much chance by nearly two seconds in Schlad- what it would take to get ski racing So the Canadians decided to against the far more experienced ming,” says Steve, clearly enjoying on TV. ‘Five victories,’ they said.” concentrate on speed. “At first, I Austrian. Sure, the Canadians were the memories. “That didn’t leave He shrugs. “And that’s exactly what were also extremely competitive— struggled to get my head around it,” improving. Sure, they took risks that much room for talk of ‘luck’.” it took. It wasn’t until 1980 that and smart, too. We realized that admits Podborski. “As a junior, I others didn’t. But they were still a But not everyone was happy downhill made it to the small screen none of us could win individually was a slalom specialist. I still wanted long way from challenging the best. with the outcome. “When we tried here in Canada.” if each acted on his own.” He lets to race the technical events!” Weren’t they? to leave the finish area in our team It was also in 1980 that Cana- a beat float by. “If we wanted to be But the argument made sense. Not on this day. While Klam- car,” he continues, “the Austrian dians started paying attention to the best, we had to subordinate our Led by coach Scott Henderson, the mer crashed 100 yards from the fin- fans started rocking our car and Pod. At the Lake Placid Games that individual needs and work together. four worked out a new training and ish, the 20-year-old Read rode his yelling at us. They were angry at winter, he snatched victory from That was a lot easier said than done. race strategy. “We were doing a lot number one bib straight to victory. our Austrian ski reps (Fischer) for defeat with a surprise bronze medal There were some strong egos on of things differently,” says Podbor- His three Canuck companions were giving us fast skis. And they were performance after his teammate (and that team. But we made it happen.” ski. “We used the system wherever close behind (4th, 10th and 13th). But serious!” gold medal favorite) Read lost a ski The deck was stacked against the we could. You know, like racing in few fans took the result seriously. in an early turn. young Canucks. Culture, advertis- South American to boost our FIS “After the race,” recalls Podborski, They’re Crazy, Those Canucks “It’s funny how much that ing, travel—the entire World Cup with (a national phone pro- points in order make the first seed “our ski tech came over and told us: And thus was born a legend. Olympic medal shaped my career,” system was structured to favor Eu- vider with a long history of sport in World Cup. Nobody had really ‘If Klammer hadn’t fallen, he would “They’re crazy, those Canucks,” says Podborski. “Remember, until ropeans. The big players back then involvement), the 53-year-old looks done that as a team before.” But have won the race. Ken was just World Cup czar Serge Lange was re- that moment there’d been virtually had names like Klammer and Russi a decade younger than the age their unorthodox methods worked. lucky.’” A long pause. “That made puted to have said later that winter, no televised ski coverage in Canada. and Mueller and Colombin. Ameri- given on his driver’s license. Fit and The baby of the foursome, Pod- us so-o-o mad.” meaning ‘They really don’t know People weren’t watching us on TV can skiers, particularly the men and tanned—and still wearing the little- borski remembers well the first time He admits that the insult still what they’re doing, poor boys.’ But every weekend. They didn’t know particularly in the speed events, kid grin that so endeared him to a Canadian man climbed onto the stings. “We knew it wasn’t about the subtly derogatory moniker soon how well we were doing.” barely registered. (The Mahre broth- fans when he was beating the likes top step of a World Cup podium. luck,” he insists. “We knew Ken became a badge of honor for the After Lake Placid, Steve Podbor- ers hadn’t hit their stride and the of ’s dour Peter Muel- The year was 1975. The site was Val had won that race fair and square. skiers from the Great White North. ski became a household name in his country’s downhill program hadn’t ler—the former champ is still deeply D’Isere in France. “It was the Franz We even compared video runs to As for respect, it still took a country. By the time he’d assured been updated in years.) “Ours was a involved in his sport and sits on a Klammer era,” he explains. “People the spot where Franz fell. And even while, even in Canada. “After those the overall downhill title in 1982 Cinderella story,” says Podborski. “It variety of ski-racing related boards. forget just how good the guy was there, Ken was ahead.” Still, the Ca- first two victories,” remembers with a powerful second-place surge never should have happened. But it And his competitiveness is never back then. I believe he was the best nadians badly wanted to show the Steve, “we went back home for the in Canada’s lone World Cup speed did, because we were able to build very far below the surface. downhiller the world has ever seen. world they could win when Klam- national championships. We had a event of the season (on a course on each others’ success.” “Nobody made it easy for us,” Work ethic, will to win, athleticism, mer stood up. meeting with the CBC [Canada’s na- that favored his rivals), Pod and the A -based executive he says. “At least not in the begin- touch: the guy had it all.” They didn’t have long to wait. tional broadcaster] and asked them Crazy Canucks had become a mar-

20 | July-August 2011 Skiing Heritage www.skiinghistory.org July-August 2011 | 21 courtesy of ken read and children were catching a taxi at the Vancouver airport. And the Sikh Catching Up With the Canucks driver noticed her last name. ‘Are you related to Steve Podborski?” he asked her. When she told him she Numerous Canadian fans celebrated the Kershaw-Harvey was, he proudly announced that victory at the Nordic World Championships last winter (see he’d named his first-born son ‘Steve’ pages 18–19). But none were more excited than Ken Read. The in honor of me and my skiing vic- current director of winter sports for Own The Podium, the tories.” A long pause. “That story government-backed funding arm for Canada’s Olympic sports really blew me away.” development program, Read shied away from taking direct And as for their lasting influence credit for the duo’s groundbreaking performance in Norway. on the domestic ski-racing scene, But, as he says, “those of us who have been part of OTP from there’s no question that the Crazy the beginning feel we did help author part of the story…” Canuck era heralded a revolution That statement alone illustrates just how much the Crazy Vancouver executive Ken Read is director of in the way that the sport was pro- Canucks’ legacy is bigger than mere memories. This is what Steve Podborski is a FIS winter sports for Own moted, managed, coached—and even Read has to say: “My initial reaction, which is influenced by how committee chair. the Podium. raced—in Canada. this keeps resurfacing, is not to look at what we did then, but “They set the bar in just about focus on what are we doing now,” he says. “Rather than historic every category,” says former national reflection, one should look at how our success gave us the abil- fundraiser and ski-racing promoter. But he’s also a surprisingly team member and World Cup win- ity to help the next generation to be even more successful.” agile administrator. In June 2002, he took over as president ner Rob Boyd. “We were the new Read goes on to list the Canucks’ post-racing accomplish- of (the governing body for all things ski-racing kids on the block. They were the ments and responsibilities. “Pod is a vice president with the Ca- related) and took a big broom to the organization. The result? masters. They’d opened the funding nadian Snowsport Association, Chair of the FIS committee for From one World Cup podium in 2002, Alpine Canada scored 15 floodgates. Shown us how to be real skiers with disabilities, a member of the board for the Canadian in the 2006-2007 season. professionals.” He pauses. Shrugs. Olympic Committee and has been highly influential promoting Alas, that couldn’t be sustained. Read stepped down as CEO “But they’d also left us with a lot of sports and sports participation through his position at Telus. of Alpine Canada in June 2008 to avoid any appearance of con- responsibility,” he says. And then he Dave Murray had a similar creative and impactful influence in flict of interest when it became possible that his son, Erik, might laughs. “I mean, if you were a Cana- developing and promoting masters’ ski racing until his untimely be selected for the Canadian ski team (Erik was named to the dian downhiller, you couldn’t be death in 1990. As for Dave Irwin [despite his near-fatal ski ac- team in 2009). Soon after the Olympic Games in 2010, however, a wimp…” cident a few years back], he’s able to contribute through the he was tagged by longtime mentor to take over Boyd still remembers watch- Dash for Cash and the Dave Irwin Foundation For Brain Injury. the helm of Own the Podium. It is probably one of the most ing Ken Read race in Innsbruck in When all is said and done, it is still Read who leads the powerful jobs in Canadian sports today. And Read couldn’t be the 1976 Olympics. “The timing for charge. A former member of the IOC Athletes Commission and happier. “This is the kind of work I love,” he says. “This is where I me was perfect,” he says. “I was the FIS Alpine Committee Executive Board, Read is a tireless can have a true and real impact on the future.” ten years old and really into speed. The fact that these guys were kick- ing butt in Europe inspired me Whistler Mountain Ski Team—Boyd we’re not afraid to take risks.’” He skiing careers cut short because of Ken Read during a 1979 World Cup event in Lake Placid, New York. A member of the to dream, too. I internalized the has a broader perspective on this is- stops for a moment. “Slowly but inadequate training or preparation. national team from 1973 to 1983, he had five World Cup victories, including a 1975 first- thought that winning World Cups sue than most. Even today, he says, surely, that became part of ski racing Some had their lives significantly al- place finish in Val d’Isere, France—the first World Cup downhill win for a Canadian male. wasn’t just reserved for Europeans.” the shadow of the Crazy Canucks culture in this country. That attitude tered by career-ending crashes. A direct beneficiary of the in- looms large. “Their legacy is multi- stuck, for better or worse…” As for a coherent development creased funding that came from the tiered,” he says. “Ken Read, for ex- “By virtue of this message,” con- strategy, the team is still struggling keting phenomenon. More impor- The Crazy Canuck Legacy Canucks’ success, Boyd also had to ample, served as president of Alpine tinues Goldsmid, “the young guys to define itself in a post ‘Crazy tantly, they had made skiing—and There was a time when the Cana- contend with the heightened expec- Canada during my coaching stint all gravitated towards speed. They Canuck’ way. Ask anybody in the ski racing—cool for a whole new dian ski-racing story was all about tations. “Ironically,” he says, “I really with the national team. He’s had a might be good technical skiers, have country for the name of a world- generation of kids. women. Nancy Greene, Anne Heg- didn’t appreciate their impact until direct hand in the development of all the physical assets for slalom and class downhiller today, and chances “Winning comes down to at- gveit, Lucille Wheeler—these were I’d retired. But yes, during the years the sport for years.” GS. But they were Canadians. And are they’ll hark back to one of the titude,” concludes Podborski. “You the giant killers from the Great I raced on the World Cup (1985 to Bruce Goldsmid grew up racing Canadians raced downhill…” four originals. have to be able to look around at White North who could be counted 1995), people did expect us to win.” in Vancouver with Crazy Canuck This “damn-the-torpedoes” ap- Sad but true, admits Podborski. the guys in the starting area. And on to beat the Europeans at the ski He laughs. “And when we didn’t, Dave Murray in the 1960s and early proach exacted a high physical price Still, if winning World Cup down- you have to be able to ask your- game. And the Canadian men? Not our fans were disappointed. No mat- ’70s. The CEO of British Columbia from athletes as well. Going fast, hills were easy, he says with a glint self: ‘Have I done everything— so much… ter that we still didn’t have the kind Alpine for the last 35 years, he’s had pushing boundaries and trying to of mischief in his eyes, everyone everything!—I can to beat all these But that all changed with the ad- of budget that our European rivals a bird’s-eye view of the evolution of cut corners all have consequences. would be doing it. guys?’ If your answer is ‘no,’ then vent of the Crazy Canucks. By the had. We were Canadian downhill- ski racing in Canada. “The Crazy The Canucks themselves didn’t you’re only hoping. And in World mid 1980s, it seemed everyone in the ers. We were supposed to make it to Canucks set the standard,” he says. walk away untouched—all four suf- Note: Though many great Canadian skiers Cup ski racing, ‘hoping’ is not ‘win- country had gone downhill-mad. the top step of the podium.” “They had a huge passion to win fered terrible injuries during their were associated with the Crazy Canuck ning.’” Clearly, you’d get no argu- An exaggeration? Maybe. But A member of the national coach- and that passion had a message that careers—but it was the ‘Near Ca- era, such as Jungle Jim Hunter and Todd ment from Pod’s Nordic contempo- consider: “A dozen years after I’d re- ing staff between 2005 and 2010—and every ski racer in the country heard: nucks’ who suffered more. Dozens Brooker, only the four mentioned in this raries today. tired,” Podborski recounts, “my wife currently alpine director of the ‘We’re Canadians. We go fast. And of young Canadian racers had their story were official members of that group.

22 | July-August 2011 Skiing Heritage www.skiinghistory.org July-August 2011 | 23