Injured Manuel Osborne-Paradis won’t race Lake Louise World Cup downhill

LAKE LOUISE, Alta. — Switzerland’s Beat Feuz posted the fastest time in Thursday’s training while the Canadian team was suddenly bereft of two veterans ahead of Saturday’s World Cup men’s downhill.

Erik Guay of Mont-Tremblant, Que., announced his retirement while Alpine Canada said Manny Osborne-Paradis of North Vancouver, B.C., is out indefinitely with broken bones in his leg.

Feuz, 29, won the men’s downhill last year in Lake Louise.

His time Thursday was one minute 45.90 seconds on the Lake Louise course. Dominik Paris of Italy was second 1.17 seconds back and Austria’s Johannes Kroell was third 1.32 seconds behind.

Ben Thomsen of Invermere, B.C., was the top Canadian in 41st.

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A third training run is scheduled for Friday ahead of the downhill and Sunday’s super-G.

The 37-year-old Guay is the most decorated male in Canadian ski racing history with 25 World Cup medals and a pair of world championship gold.

After finishing 69th in the first training run Wednesday, Guay decided to put an early end to what would have been his final season on the World Cup circuit.

Osborne-Paradis, 34, crashed in training Wednesday and was taken to Calgary for surgery on a broken fibula and tibia Thursday.

He has won super-G gold (2009) and a pair of downhill silver (2006, 2014) at Lake Louise during his career. Osborne-Paradis also won world championship bronze in super-G in 2017.

Thomsen, 31, from Invermere, B.C., and 28-year-old Dustin Cook of Ottawa, who won a super-G silver medal at the 2015 world championship, now lead the Canadian men’s speed team heading into the 2018-19 season.

Broderick Thompson of North Vancouver, B.C., injured his knee in training last week, so the 24-year-old brother of 2014 Olympic ski cross champion Marielle Thompson will also not race in Lake Louise.

Toronto’s Jack Crawford, Calgary’s Jeff Read, Vancouver’s Sam Mulligan and Brodie Seger of North Vancouver round out the host squad.

“It’s a little bit weird for sure,” Cook said. “I was always the youngest guy on the team for a long, long time and now, still not the oldest, but definitely not the youngest.

“It’s a little bit strange and Ben and I will definitely have to change the team atmosphere a little bit.

“We’ll be fine and we’ll keep slugging it out. Ben’s better and downhill and I’m better at super-G so we’ve got one event covered each.”

Italy’s Christof Innerhofer was fastest in Wednesday’s training ahead of Austrians Matthias Mayer and Otmar Streidinger in second and third respectively.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press