Ski Racing - April 21, 2011

2011 WHISTLER CUP

ficulty with the second heat, and Montreal racer Lambert Quezel
skied away with a win he hadn’t expected. Slovakia’s Lubomir
Murarik got the silver medal, and Sam Morse salvaged U.S. egos
with the bronze medal.

Quezel said he had concentrated on skiing smart on a tricky, close-set slalom course. “The course was pretty turny,” he said. “The snow, it was pretty hard. Same as Quebec. I’m pretty excited. I won the championship.” Morse led an American trio into the top 10 with Burke Mountain Academy’s Aleck Sullivan and GMVS’s Mooney finishing back-to-back in seventh and eighth.

The U.S. men kicked it up a notch in their final event of the
Whistler Cup, the GS, with Mooney earning his gold medal and
Aspen’s Colby Lane taking bronze. Sandwiched between was
Austria’s Marco Ladner, the first-run leader.
A Whistler April snow altered conditions considerably between
runs and Mooney handled the bumps that developed better than
anyone.

“I was very happy with how it went; it was awesome,” he said. “First run it was a great set, there wasn’t too much snow. The second run, the snow really rolled in. It was a little bumpy.” Mooney said he was pleased to be a member of the strong men’s team with Aspen’s Lane. “It’s really important to us,” said Mooney. “We’re stacked this year — really deep. It’s awesome.” The U.S. also had James Lebel in ninth, Andrew Hancock 11th and Sam Morse 12th. Canada was led by Quezel in fifth. In the women’s slalom Canada fared better with Roni Remmi claiming the gold medal and Valerie Grenier posting fifth. Brownell-Patty was the top U.S. skier in sixth, and Canada strung the next four racers before Johnson and Wright picked up the U.S. scoring in 11th and 12th, respectively. The remaining medals went to Austrians with Sporer getting silver — and her third medal of the competition — and Theres Steinlechner the bronze medal.