Erik Guay of Mont-Tremblant, Que., admits he's been toiling "under the radar" during these Olympic Games as Canadian alpine skiing teammates Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Robbie Dixon absorbed much of the pressure of skiing such a high-profile event on their home hill.
Despite the struggles of the Canadian team in general, though, Guay has quietly skied extremely well, and he punctuated that on Tuesday (Feb. 23) with a stellar second run in an event that's not exactly his specialty, the giant slalom.
Guay, 28, one of the veterans of the Canadian team, posted fifth-place finishes in the downhill and super-G, finishing just three hundredths of a second off the podium in the latter event.
On Tuesday, he posted the 29th best time in the first run, just making the top 30 for the second run. That's when he turned on the gas, laying down a run to remember and keeping him in the lead until another athlete better known as a speed skier, Switzerland's Didier Cuche, came down nine skiers later and topped his overall time.
Guay finished his second run in 1 minute, 20.25 seconds, the third-best time on that run, and moved up from 29th to 16th place.
He said never expected to be near the podium in the GS, but he said his day went according to plan.
"My game plan all along was to make the flip (top 30) and I accomplished that," Guay said. "In the second run I wanted to take some chances and maybe be in the top 15 and get some World Cup points.
"After the super-G the coaches thought I should ski the GS because I've been skiing well and it worked out well for me today."
Switzerland's Carlo Janka, who had a two-hundredths of a second lead coming into the second run, captured his first Olympic gold medal. The 2009 world champion in the GS, he started his run with a lead of .80 on Kjetil Jansrud and brought it home .39 ahead of the Norwegian, who captured silver. Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, who won gold in the super-G and silver in the downhill, won the bronze.
"I had no mistakes from start to finish (on the second run) and that was the key today," Janka said. "At the start of the Olympics it was no such good conditions, but for me, today was perfect conditions."
Janka and Jansrud, incidentally, were the only two skiers to have skied faster than Guay on the second run.
Dixon, who did not finish either the downhill or super-G, finished 24th, 3.15 seconds behind Janka. Canada's Brad Spence and Patrick Biggs, skiing in their first Olympic race, finished 35th and 42nd, respectively.
Dixon and Osborne-Paradis are Whistler Mountain Ski Club alumni. Dixon said that despite his disappointing results he has enjoyed the Games.
"It's been quite an experience," he said. "A few ups and downs, mostly downs. But my first Olympics in front of a home crowd, my family and friends, is amazing. I'm a little disappointed how I did, but it's been something that will stay with me.
Said Guay, "I have to say, I kind of used Manny and Robbie as a crutch (during the Games), because I knew they'd have a bit more pressure on them, and I kind of just flew under the radar.
"Manny and Robbie are three or four years younger than me and they'll never have this experience again. I think they can take this experience and learn from it."
