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Yesterday the premier event of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games took place. The Mens Downhill.
Nicole and LucyIt had been delayed 2 days due to warm weather leaving the course a little too soft. Unlike Cypress we don’t have any issues with lack of snow, if anything we have too much 
In the end, the event took place on a beautiful, mostly sunny day. The temperatures were still a little too warm for everyone’s liking, which led to the early racers having a slight advantage of skiing on harder packed snow. Canadian Erik Guay posted our best result, coming in 5th only 0.33 seconds slower than the winner, Didier Defago from Switzerland who finished the course in 1 minute and 54.31 seconds.
Final results: Gold – Didier Defago (Switzerland), Silver – Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway) and Bronze – Bode Miller (US)
Mens Downhill MedalistsWhistler’s hometown heroes Manny Osborne-Paradis (17th) and Robbie Dixon (DNF) gave it their all, but came up a little short. Manny was on time to challenge for the Gold until he made a small mistake near the bottom at Coach’s Corner, which cost him a little speed just before a flat section. Robbie came out of the gate like a raging bull, attacking every gate. Unfortunately one of the gates fought back, knocking him off his stride. He hung on and recovered, but it probably put him off his line and he caught an edge landing the next air which resulted in a fall. The dream wasn’t to be, but it was damn exciting watching them.
Jan Hudec (25th) was the only other Canadian, he skied well, and if he was given an earlier starting position, could have challenged for a medal.
Two Aussies also competed, good on you boys!!!! Craig Branch was only 2.88 seconds behind the winner, with Jono Brauer 3.77 slower. 3 seconds over basically 2 minutes is nothing, very impressive skiing. I am not sure who this is, but its one of them
Aussie Downhill RacerThe Aussie also had a surprise waiting for him as he flew over the last roll before the finish line. A course slipper had fallen over and was struggling to get off the course. Luckily they were not very close to the race line, but still, a little scary.
Slipper
It was unfortunate that the Canadians did not get any medals in the Men’s downhill but I felt the media was hyping up our hopes beyond the realistic for some of these events. I thought Canada’s Erik Guay did an amazing job but a huge congratulation goes out to the volunteers. The snow was awfully soggy and they treated it perfectly and it held together for a lot more racers that I thought it would. Unfortunately Manny missed that turn. A very nice finish by the Canadians though overall. For those who want to experience the Dave Murray Downhill, here is the virtual Olympic Men’s downhill course. http://blog.virtualwhistler.com/?page_id=22
Edited by Greg to replace keyword name
and to see where the Dave Murray actually is on the Google Earth trail map
http://whistlersnowreport.com/trailmap/?x=mens
Maelle Ricker from Squamish won Gold in Snowboard Cross!!! WAY TO GO CANADA!!!
It was awesome! she struggled during the qualifying (and poor Dominique!) but dominated every single race she had
Wow- that chick Lucy sure is a hottie! But I think she might be Australian.
Don’t worry, she was flying an Australian flag too
Aw Lucy and Nicole, what stars!! I can just feel their Olympic Spirit from here! Good work girls and EH OH CANADA GO (Come on Aussies too!!).