ALPINE:

Dixon 15th in Lake Louise training as 'redemption year' begins

Nov. 24, 2010     ♦ Photo: Robbie Dixon 

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — It's time for downhill skier Robbie Dixon to turn potential into podium finishes.

Being close won't be good enough for the North Vancouver, B.C., native this World Cup season.

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"This is a redemption year," Dixon said after a 15th-place finish left him the top Canadian in Wednesday's first day of training for the opening World Cup downhill race of the season.

"A few things have gone on the last couple of years. I've been right there, getting really good results. I just really want to break out, get on the podium and prove to people I can be there. I want to walk the walk."

Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal had the fastest time on a bitterly cold day. He tolerated minus-22 temperatures to cover the 3.1-kilometre Men's Olympic Downhill Run in 1 minute, 49.97 seconds.

"I made some mistakes but they were the kind of mistakes you make when you are skiing pretty fast," said Svindal, who won the gold medal in super-G and was second in the downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Hans Grugger of Austria was second in 1:50.04 while Patrik Jaerbyn of Sweden was third in 1:50.11.

Bode Miller was the top American, placing seventh in 1:50.30.

Dixon, who was timed in 1:50.83, had a strip of white tape covering his nose to protect him from the biting cold. The freezing temperatures were made even worse by reaching speeds of over 130 kilometres an hour.

He admitted to some jitters in the start gate prior to the first official downhill training of the season.

"I've skied this track so many times," said the 25-year-old. "I just wanted to work on some stuff.

"It always feels good when you get to the bottom and get that first run under your belt. You get all fired up and want to go back and do it again."

Dixon has eight top-10 finishes over the past two World Cup seasons. His best result is a fourth in a super-G at Kvitfjell, Norway, in 2008.

He's one of those racers who has shown flashes of brilliance in training, but failed to put it together on race day. While teammates like Erik Guay, Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Jan Hudec have drank victory champagne, Dixon has been left sipping beer.

"I feel left off my team," said Dixon. "The core guys I ski with all the time, they have (medals) in their back pockets, they have handfuls of them.

"I'm sitting here with fourths and fifths and sevenths."

Max Gartner, Alpine Canada's president, said Dixon has something to prove this season.

"He needs to be on the podium," said Gartner. "He wants to be on the podium. He has the capability to be on the podium.

"He knows he can beat those guys in training. Now he has to do it on race day. He's at that point he needs the validation he's really there when it counts."

Racing at February's Winter Olympics in Whistler, B.C., turned into a school of hard knocks for Dixon. There were huge expectations on the Canadian team, and Dixon wanted to do well on the hill where he grew up skiing.

The pressure took its toll. Dixon fell in both the downhill and super-G before managing a 24th in the giant slalom. "I have never felt pressure like that," he said. "It was one of those experiences, a love-hate. My first Olympics, at home, not too many people can say that.

"My races, things didn't go as well as planned. The biggest thing I can take away from it was the experience. I'm still young, I still have a couple more Olympics in me. I think we'll see some real good stuff leading into Sochi."

It wasn't a great day for the other nine Canadians in the field of 84 racers who finished Wednesday's training.

Guay, of Mont-Tremblant, Que., who won last season's crystal globe in super-G, was 21st in 1:51.42. Osborne-Paradis of North Vancouver, B.C., who won a downhill last season and was second in another, finished 37th in 1:52.50.

"My first run, I wanted to ski it technically well," said Guay. "I think I achieved that.

"There's a few tactical places I can clean up. That will be pretty easy to do."

Guay wants to change his recent history of starting the season slow, then getting good results in the second half.

"I have the bad habit of being a little bit of a slow starter and a good finisher," he said. "I'd like to be better this year at the start of the season."

"I feel solid on my skis and I feel comfortable, which is a huge improvement from last year (at this time)," said Guay. "I made a couple tactical mistakes but it's the first training run and those things happen. Those will be easy to clean up and I am pretty satisfied with the way I skied that first run.

"What I wanted to do today was feel good on my skis, have that good feeling at high speed. Even though we try to train for it, it's not the same in summer training. You never get the same conditions, that rock-hard snow, the high-speed long turns, you don't get those in summer training. So it's getting back into that."

Osborne-Paradis shrugged off his slow time. "It's the first training run," he said. "I just wanted to get down and just get back in the groove of things.

"Everybody is kind of nervous. I'm happy with it."

Among the other Canadians, Francois Bourque of New Richmond, Que., was 40th in 1:52.58; Dustin Cook, Ottawa, 41st in 1:52.59; Louis-Pierre Helie, Berthierville, Que., 51st in 1:53.12; Benjamin Thomsen, Vancouver, 54th in 1:53.23; Tyler Nella, Burlington, Ont., 56th in 1:53.33; Hudec, Calgary, 63rd in 1:53.68; and Kelby Halbert Brandford, Ont., 64th in 1:53.75.

The Winterstart World Cup continues with another training run Thursday scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. MT. The opening race, a men's downhill, is also scheduled for 11:30 a.m. MT on Saturday. Times are subject to change based on weather conditions.

CBC's main network broadcast will be showing Saturday's downhill race from 1-3 p.m. MT. CBC will also broadcast the men's super-G from 3-4 p.m. local time and again 1:30-2:30 a.m. local time. Radio-Canada.ca will be broadcasting races live on both days.  S-Magazine

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Lake Louise World Cup downhill training No. 1 results