Manuel Osborne-Paradis narrowly misses alpine World Cup podium, but Canada nets two top-10s

Friday was a day of what could have been for the Canadian men's alpine skiing team, with Manuel Osborne-Paradis placing fourth at the World Cup downhill event in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Osborne-Paradis finished in a time of 1:44.74, just .24 seconds behind winner Aksel-Lund Svindal of Norway, just .07 seconds behind second-place finisher Hannes Reichelt of Austria and just .04 seconds behind third-place finisher Peter Fill of Italy. Still, that's a promising finish for Osborne-Paradis, who's just coming back off a serious injury, and he wasn't the only Canadian to do well on the day: Jan Hudec finished seventh with a time of 1:45.17, and Erik Guay (who led all racers with a time of 1:43.48 in qualifying Thursday) wound up 16th out of 67 skiers who finished the course with a time of 1:45:17. That's a solid showing ahead of the Sochi Olympics from the promising men's alpine team, which has seen its World Cup podium finishers dubbed the "Canadian Cowboys" and has been finding some of the highest success Canada's seen in the sport since the days of the "Crazy Canucks."

Osborne-Paradis, Hudec and Guay accomplished this despite tough conditions, too. Temperatures in Beaver Creek started at -7 degrees Celsius and hit as low as -17 Friday, and racers also had to deal with falling snow and low visibility. They were also on a new course, a hybrid that featured part of the traditional women's course as well as the previously-used men's course, and they only got one day of training on it thanks to travel issues Tuesday and snowstorms Wednesday. Any of those factors may have played a role in the struggles of the other Canadian racers Friday; Ben Thomsen finished 46th, while Conrad Pridy and Dustin Cook didn't finish their first run. Still, on the whole, two top-10 finishes and a third racer inside the top-20 is a pretty excellent collection of results for the Cowboys.

What's ahead for Paradis and the men's team? Well, the World Cup circuit has plenty of events lined up. There's a Super G in Beaver Creek Saturday and a giant slalom Sunday, and next weekend features a giant slalom and a slalom in Val d'Isere, France. From Dec. 20-22, there's a Super G, a downhill and a giant slalom in Val Gardena and Alta Badia, Italy, and then another downhill in Bormio, Italy on Dec. 29 to close out the month. That should give Paradis and his teammates additional chances to rack up top-10s and podium finishes. It's been a great comeback for him so far, as he missed most of the last two years with a knee injury and a broken leg suffered in a Jan. 29, 2011 crash, but has already qualified for the Canadian Olympic team (along with Hudec) thanks to 12th and 10th place finishes respectively last weekend in Lake Louise, Alberta. Now, he's just a few milliseconds away from the podium, and future greatness may well await in Sochi.

(On the women's side, Canada's Larisa Yurkiw finished in a tie for seventh in Friday's downhill at Lake Louise with an impressive time of 1:57.66, 43 milliseconds behind third-place finisher Elena Fanchini of Italy. The 25-year-old Yurkiw missed the Vancouver Olympics thanks to a 2009 crash that tore her ACL, her MCL and other knee ligaments. She was the only Canadian woman in Friday's downhill, and she's been essentially funding her own way with the help of sponsors thanks to Alpine Canada's decision to drop her last April to focus on developing younger female skiers for 2018 and 2022. Yurkiw's seventh-place finish was the highest in her career. She still would have to meet the Olympic qualifying standard and be picked by Alpine Canada in order to compete in Sochi, but her 15th-place finish in Beaver Creek last week and seventh-place showing this week definitely should help keep her Olympic dream alive.)