Injuries and retirements have played havoc with the senior ranks of the Canadian alpine ski team, but a glimmer of hope for the future is emerging at the International Ski Federation (FIS) world junior championships at Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
In Monday's slalom event, five Canadians finished in the top 30 - three of them in the top 11 - indicating a depth of talent that could put the nation's next generation among the elite. It is one of the best results a Canadian team has enjoyed at the junior worlds.
"Hopefully, we can keep building on that in the next couple of days," said Erik Read of Calgary, the fastest Canadian in two slalom rounds.
The son of legendary Crazy Canuck racer Ken Read finished sixth with a two-run combined time of 1 minute 31.54 seconds.
Already identified as a member of Alpine Canada's prospect group, Read got his feet wet in a World Cup slalom debut last week at Schladming, Austria. He'd almost completed the World Cup run before going off course six gates from the finish.
Monday, he slipped and caught an edge halfway through his first run, but regained his balance for a 16th-place finish. He found another gear for his second run and went up 10 spots in the rankings.
"My first run was all right, but the conditions were pretty soft," Read said. "At about halfway down I caught an edge … but I skied the bottom really well. Despite that, I was still really happy with my first run.
"The second run was a lot better and the conditions in the afternoon were beautiful. I had to deal with the ruts and the snow conditions but fought through it and I skied really well. I'm really happy with my result today."
It was Read's best result at the FIS juniors after a ninth in the super combined at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in 2009.
Switzerland claimed the top two podium places in the slalom. Reto Schmidiger had a time of 1:28.54, and Justin Murisier was second in 1:30.08. France's Mathias Rolland was third in 1:30.54.
The second Canadian to finish in the top 10 was Philip Brown of Toronto, with a two-run combined time of 1:31.92. Brown was 30th after the first run, but skied aggressively on the second, posting the fastest time of the 87 racers. It's his second top-15 finish in two days, after he placed 11th in last Sunday's giant slalom. Only 87 athletes of a starting 163 made it to the second round.
Calgary's Trevor Philp, 19, also a member of the prospect team, was 11th at 1:32.01, a career best at the world juniors.
Dominic Garand of Mont Tremblant, Que., a world juniors rookie, was 23rd with a time of 1:33.71. Cody Pederson of Calgary finished in 27th spot in 1:35.49.
The women had their second downhill training run on Monday. Sarah Freeman of Fernie, B.C., was Canada's fastest entry as she clocked in a time of 1:35.41, which put her in ninth place.
Prospect athlete Julia Roth, of Waterloo, Ont., finished 16th with a time of 1:35.82. The last Canadian out of the gate was Madison McLeish, who finished 34th with a time of 1:37.69.