Calgary, Alta. (November 11, 2017) – Canadians make their mark on the season opening slalom race in Levi, FIN with three top-30 finishes. Marie-Michèle Gagnon (Lac Etchemin, Que.) lead the team today with a tenth-place finish.

Gagnon, one of Canada’s best all-around skiers, sat in eighth-place after charging the first run. As visibility and conditions diminished, Gagnon managed to take on the second run finishing in tenth-place, +3.48 seconds back from the lead time.

The biggest Canadian moment of the day came for 23-year-old Laurence St-Germain (St. Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que.) who started with bib number 47 and finished the day in 17th-place. She finished +3.98 seconds off the first-place time. St-Germain went into the second run in 18th-place and bettered her ranking by one. St-Germain finished the 2016-17 Nor-Am Cup season ranked second overall in slalom and proved she has what it takes to compete in the big leagues. The Quebec-native finishes the first race of the season with a new person-best slalom World Cup result.

"For Laurence it's great to see her gain World Cup points today," said head coach Manuel Gamper. "It's great for the rest of the team to see another athlete from the next generation group achieve a great result. We saw Valérie [Grenier] be very close in Sölden and we know she also has what it takes to hit the top 30." 

Rounding out Canada’s top-30 finishers is Erin Mielzynski (Collingwood, Ont.) with a 27th-place result. With an unusual performance from this slalom veteran, Mielzynski made a few costly mistakes in the second run putting her +4.53 back from the winning time. Mielzynski sat it in 25th-place after the first run and failed to make up enough time to get back in contention for a top-ten finish.

Next up, the men race on the same track tomorrow for their season-opening race. Canada has three men looking to make their mark this season. For more details, click here.

Canadian Results

10 – Marie-Michèle Gagnon

17 – Laurence St-Germain

27 – Erin Mielzynski

For full results, click here.

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