North Shore News Daily Olympic Paper - Feb. 17, 2010

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german lugerS dominate

Benjamin alldritt

photo Jenelle Schneider / Canwest News Service

Feel it. Live it. Share it.

Y o u r

Maëlle Ricker leads the final run of the women’s snowboard cross event at Cypress tuesday.

Bumpy ride to gold andy Prest

aprest@nsnews.com West Vancouver native Maëlle Ricker moved a mountain yesterday, winning a gold medal in Olympic snowboard cross to become the first Canadian female to reach the top of the podium on home soil. “What can you say — she grew up riding this mountain. . . . this is her place and she’ll remember it for the rest of her life,” said north Vancouver resident and longtime friend and teammate drew neilson moments after ricker crossed the line in first place by a wide margin to win the gold. “i’m ecstatic, i’m so happy for her. this being

the ultimate goal of any athlete in any sport — an Olympic gold,” added anthony Findlay, a north Vancouver trainer who has worked with ricker for four years and who was there at the bottom of the course. “she’s earned it, she so deserves it. everyone knows it. i guarantee everyone in the whole snowboard world is so happy for her too.” though the day ended in gold for ricker, it almost started in disaster. the Cypress course was treacherous during qualifying runs earlier in the day and ricker fell in her first qualifying run and did not end up with a fast

See Roars page 5

balldritt@nsnews.com the Germans enjoyed a four-medal day tuesday, starting with their continued mastery of luge, winning gold and bronze in women’s singles. top-ranked tatjana huefner took the gold, and countrywoman natalie Geisenberger earned the bronze. austrian nina reithmayer won silver. Canada’s ladies were well back in the field, with regan lauscher’s 15th-place finish leading the way. alex Gough placed 18th and meaghan simister came 25th. it was also a good day for Germany’s magdalena neuner, who won gold in women’s 10-kilometre pursuit biathlon. neuner, a six-time world champion, had been denied gold in an earlier biathlon event by slovakia’s anastasia Kuzmina, who added silver to her medal haul tuesday. marie laure Brunet won bronze for France. in men’s 12.5-kilometre pursuit biathlon, sweden’s Bjorn Ferry stormed ahead in the final lap to win by a comfortable 16-second margin, tailed by austria’s Christoph sumann and Vincent jay of France, who collected his second medal of the Games. Canadian jean

See Starter’s page 4

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Ski eventS change dayS

Heavy snowfall in Whistler has softened the alpine skiing course and delayed the start of the men’s super combined and giant slalom events. Originally scheduled for Tuesday, super combined has been pushed back to Sunday, Feb. 21. The downhill runs are slated to begin at 9:30 a.m., followed by slalom at 12:30 p.m. The new schedule will push giant slalom to Tuesday, Feb. 23. Women’s super combined is scheduled to go ahead Thursday, Feb. 18.

athletic Support At least seven North Shore physiotherapists are volunteering or working at Games venues during the Olympics. None is more excited than Paige Larson, who is the venue medical supervisor for the figure skating competitions at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. See story page 3.

West Vancouver Community Centre

Spirit Square an official 2010 Celebration site Enjoy Live Music & Performance Explore Sport, Space, & Art we s tva n co uve r 2 0 1 0 . c a