Alpine Canada Alpin

Alpine Canada is the national governing body for alpine, para-alpine and ski cross racing in Canada. With the support of valued corporate partners along with the Government of Canada, Own the Podium and the Canadian Olympic Committee, Alpine Canada develops Olympic, Paralympic, world championship and World Cup medallists to stimulate visibility, inspiration and growth in the ski community. Alpine Canada is home to three of Canada’s fastest and most exciting snow sports, alpine, ski cross

Alpine Canada is home to three of Canada’s fastest and most exciting snow sports: alpine, ski cross and para-alpine ski racing. Each sport has a different set of rules, but each athlete has the same goal: get to the bottom of the mountain faster than anyone else.
Over the last half-century, Alpine Canada’s athletes have done just that winning countless world championship medals, Olympic medals, Paralympic medals, X Games medals, and World Cup podiums.
Here’s a look back at some of Alpine Canada’s proudest moments. Please note, complete lists of all medal winners are located at the bottom of this page.
Canadian ski racing officially began on December 20th, 1920, when the Canadian Amateur Ski Association (CASA) was incorporated under the Dominion Charter. The Association consisted of alpine, cross country, and ski jumping as equal partners. While the Association has morphed over time, the excitement and passion for the sport remains the same.
Even though 1920 kicked off the official start of ski racing in Canada the sport was enjoyed long before. In 1904, the Montreal Ski Club, a forerunner for all Canadian ski clubs, was established using the slopes of Mont Royal. In 1905 the club moved north to the Manitou Ski Club in Sainte-Agathe. The train brought avid skiers from Montreal and surrounding areas, establishing the Laurentians as a ski destination that is still sought after today.
When they were incorporated, the Canadian Amateur Ski Association was an honorary member of the Ski Club of Great Britain and was affiliated with the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada, the United States Eastern Amateur Ski Association, and the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) who we remain affiliated with to this day.
The 1930’s saw the introduction of mechanical lifts (rope-tows) as well as FIS sanctioned events; FIS Alpine World Championships in 1931 and the first Winter Olympics to include alpine ski races in 1936.
Alpine Canada’s history of champions started in 1956 when Montreal’s Lucile Wheeler won Canada’s first Olympic alpine medal - a bronze in downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA. Two years later, she went on to win double gold at the world championships, starting a Canadian tradition of skiing excellence that would eventually rival any country in the world.
In 1960, Anne Heggtveit became the first Canadian to win an Olympic gold medal in slalom at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, USA. In 1967, Canada’s Nancy Greene won the World Cup overall title in the very first alpine World Cup season. She went on to win the title again in 1968, the same year she won gold and silver at the Grenoble Olympic Games in giant slalom and slalom. In 1999, Greene was named Canada’s Female Athlete of the Century by the Canadian Press.
Keith Nesbitt, general manager of the Canadian Amateur Ski Association estimated in a December 1969 Maclean’s interview that the contribution skiers make to local economies across Canada was incalculable. The same article declared that “Skiing as a national obsession is somewhat ahead of golf and bowling, which was once Canada’s biggest participatory sport. ”
The Canadian Amateur Ski Association changed its name to the Canadian Ski Association (CSA) as the sport continued to grow and divisions (provinces) increased engagement from provincial bodies. The 1970's started with 16-year-old Betsy Clifford winning the world giant slalom championships and six years later, Kathy Kreiner won Olympic Gold in giant slalom. Also in the '70s, Canada’s Crazy Canucks - including Ken Read, Steve Podborski, Dave Irwin and Dave Murray - conquered race courses with their bold and daring racing style and proved to the world that you didn’t need to be European to win ski races. In 1975, Read became the first non-European man to win a World Cup downhill race. Together, the Crazy Canucks earned 107 top-10 World Cup results from 1978-1984. Podborski still holds the men’s Canadian record of 20 World Cup podiums.
Also during the ‘70s, the Paralympic movement (which had started after wounded World War II veterans returned home) was gaining momentum around the world, and in 1976, the first Paralympic Games were held in Örnsköldsvik, SWE. John Gow won Canada’s first Paralympic alpine gold in slalom.
In the early '80s, Podborski made history when he became the first North American to win an Olympic medal in men's alpine after claiming bronze in downhill at Lake Placid, U. S. A in 1980. Two years later, he became the first North American to win the overall World Cup title in downhill.
At the 1984 Paralympic Games in Innsbruck, AUT, the para-alpine team set a new Canadian record for a single Games, winning 14 alpine medals.
The ‘80s were also a time when Canada's women's alpine skiing team shone, with Gerry Sorensen winning the 1982 world downhill championships and Laurie Graham, Karen Percy and Gerry Sorensen capturing five Olympic and world championship medals combined between 1982 and 1989.
The highlight for the women’s team came in 1988 when Karen Percy, from Banff, Alta, became a hometown hero by winning the first Canadian medal of the Calgary Olympic Games. The 21-year-old won downhill bronze on the seventh day of competition and went on to win another bronze in super-G a few days later.
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