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The Kitzbühel downhill is the most exciting, iconic and daring race on the men’s alpine calendar and it’s happening this weekend. Beginning this week, the men will take to the famed Hahnenkamm track for a downhill race on Saturday, vying for one of the top honours in a skier’s trophy case: a Kitzbühel podium. Alpine Canada athletes will also be gunning for top performances in the super-G held on Friday and the slalom race on Sunday.
The Streif, as it’s referred to on tour, tests every athlete who pushes out of the start gate, with several of alpine’s greatest skiers ending up on the wrong side of the finish line. It’s the win every speed skier is searching for. In front of over 50,000 screaming fans, athletes will hurl themselves down the Hannahkham at speeds of over 150km/hr in a quest to be crowned the champion of the Kitzbühel downhill.
Canada’s Crazy Canucks conquered the Hahnenkamm in the early 1980s winning the famed downhill four years in a row. Ken Read in 1980, Steve Podborski in 1981 and 1982, and Todd Brooker in 1983 all captured one of the most prestigious wins on the circuit. In 2013, Canada’s most decorated male alpine skier, Erik Guay, missed gold in the super G by just 0.13 seconds.
This generation’s band of men’s speed skiers, known as the Canadian Cowboys, will charge the track looking for the first Canadian win in over 30 years.
KITZBUHUEL SPEED ROSTER
Phil Brown
Dustin Cook
Erik Guay
Manuel Osborne-Paradis
Ben Thomsen
Broderick Thompson
Tyler Werry
