The finish line and the roaring crowd were right there in front of them, and Whistler's Lindsay Debou screamed to a hurting Viviane Forest as the visually impaired skier shot toward the line.
Debou, Forest's guide, shouted, "'Come on, let's go, push, push, push, we're there!' And then I heard the crowd before I even knew what time we had."
With that, the duo delivered Canada's first alpine skiing medal of the 2010 Games on the Whistler Creekside slopes. Forest and Debou sped to a silver medal in Sunday's (March 14) slalom race with their gutsy and energetic runs, thrilling the crowd that cheered for all the skiers but had special volume for the Canadians.
"We could hear the crowd from the top, so we were super pumped, and super relaxed at the same time," Debou said.
Hearing the roar of the crowd in the start gate almost made them a bit nervous, Forest said, but the successful pair focused on breathing, having fun and skiing as well as they know how.
"It's amazing to get a medal from the Games here. It's my third Paralympics, my first in the winter, so I'm totally happy," said Forest, a two-time gold medallist in summer Paralympics with Canadian goalball teams.
Debou said it was hard to find the words to describe the experience of winning this medal on her home hill.
"I couldn't imagine (it) coming across the finish line and hearing the crowd was where it actually hit. We've been here for a few days and done some training runs, but crossing the finish line and seeing all the Canadian flags, knowing where my family was in the crowd, it really got to my heart," Debou said.
Forest has been struggling with a pulled groin muscle, an injury sustained in training two weeks ago, but she dug deep for a strong finish in the second slalom run. In the last section of the course, Forest said she was out of gas and "so much in pain. I was just afraid to miss a gate or (not) finish.
"But it did go well, and that's what matters."
Forest, who has four per cent vision, is a relative newcomer to the national team, but she has earned a long string of successes since starting to race on the World Cup circuit in 2008. She's been particularly successful since teaming up with Debou, a former Whistler Mountain Ski Club racer, right before the 2009 IPC World Championships: The pair won medals in all five races at that event, including one gold, and went on to capture two gold and two silver medals at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup Finals in Whistler last March.
Heading into the Paralympics, they had won all four World Cup slalom races they entered. Expectations have been running pretty high for Forest and Debou, but the racers were ready to rise to the occasion.
"I'm even more confident now. We've got the jitters out, we've done the first race, we've been really successful, so now we can just really relax and do what we do well," Debou said.
Despite Forest's injury, her expectations remain high she said she hopes to reach the podium in each of her races, including at least one gold-medal performance.
Having won this slalom silver medal, she said, "I feel the pressure's off our shoulders. At least we've got a piece of those Games to bring home and show to the rest of Cda. I feel really special."
In the second run, Austria's Sabine Gasteiger came across the line just after the Canadians to claim gold with guide Stefan Schoner. Gasteiger, the 53-year-old silver medallist from the 2006 Paralympics, posted the top time in both of the slalom runs for a total time of 2:00.56, while Forest and Debou were just over eight tenths of a second back.
As snow streamed down and course workers battled valiantly to keep the race venue in shape, Vernon's Josh Dueck delivered another dose of delight for the hometown fans by winning a surprise silver medal in the men's sitting category.
Known more for his strength in the speed events, Dueck outdid his personal-best slalom performance on the biggest stage possible here at the Paralympics. He fed off the energy of a passionate crowd that included a group of 20-odd Dueck supporters sporting "Go Josh Go" T-shirts and signs.
"The hometown crowd, everybody here supporting the Paralympics, everybody here that came to support me and what I'm doing, they sent me over the top. This is my best performance ever, period, in slalom," Dueck said.
He's been working with his sports psychologist on "channeling that home energy, letting it roll through me and then putting it back into the mountain. It sounds kind of crazy, but it really helped to calm my nerves, and make it through."
The men's sitting category produced an exciting race, as Dueck sat fourth after the first run but achieved the jump upward into fourth. Austria's Philipp Bonadimann sat just ahead of him in third, but when he crossed the finish line right after Dueck, he slipped behind the Canadian sit-skier by five hundredths of a second.
Seeing that surprise slip, a delighted Dueck pumped his helmet to the cheering crowd that had chanted his name. Then Germany's Martin Braxenthaler, the 2006 slalom champion, took the lead from Dueck, and his teammate Jurgen Egle, who led after the first run, crashed out of contention by running into a gate.
"I had mentally prepared myself for whatever might be coming down the course, and a big contingent of my fans are from my freestyle days, when I used to be a competitive moguls skier, so I just tapped into that mindset and just tried to be supple and soft over whatever terrain was out there. It just worked out on my side today," Dueck said.
Canada's Chris Williamson, guided by Nick Brush, finished a surprise sixth in the men's visually impaired race, but professed himself ready to rebound in the next races.
The pair's strong second run offered "something to build on," Williamson said. "I've had rough starts before and come back really well."
The slalom races are scheduled to continue tomorrow for the men's and women's standing categories. Check vancouver2010.com for the altered alpine race schedule.
