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Canada’s Alpine Skiers train with NHL Alumni Potvin, Olympian Vaillancourt in Quebec

Monday, 21 June 2010 12:10

MAGOG, QC (June 18, 2010) - Canada's men's alpine ski team took the ice this week in Magog, QC with former NHL goaltender Felix Potvin and 2010 women's national team Olympic gold medalist Sarah Vaillancourt, incorporating hockey into into the team's summer training program for the third straight year.

Men's speed team coach Serge Dugas said the original intent was to do something in the off-season that didn't focus on weightlifting in the gym. He said the goal was to do something that would be fun and a team-building exercise.

"When it began three years ago, I wanted to bring the team together. Everyone knows that a unified team is a strong team," said Dugas of the training camp, which took place at the Centre Récréatif Rock Forest.

"When your teammates are performing well, it is definitely a boost of confidence for the rest of the team. That is exactly what I wanted. So we created the hockey camp, dividing the speed and tech teams in order to make sure that we would mix-up the guys. We even roomed them accordingly," Dugas added.  

Hockey has become something of a secondary pursuit for ski racers during the grueling World Cup season, with pick-up games regularly taking place after training runs during the World Cup season. Media attending the Bombardier Lake Louise Winterstart are known to bring their skates to play on the frozen Lake Louise with members of the Canadian team, coaches, and others ski racers including American Bode Miller.

At this week's camp, things quickly got competitive with Manuel Osborne-Paradis (Vancouver, BC) leading team White to victory in Friday's final game. Erik Guay (Mont-Tremblant, QC) seemed to think the bragging rights from the final game of the hockey camp will linger for a long time.

"The team that loses the tournament will hear about it all season long," laughed Guay. "Especially this year because all the guys are getting way better, so the game is even more intense. Everyone brought everything they've got, left it all on the ice."

"It's always fun to compete against each other without our skis on," Julien Cousineau (Lachute, QC) added. "(The speed and tech teams) don't get to see each other very often during the season, so it's always fun to get together like this during the off-season." 

Alpine Canada Alpin platinum partner President's Choice, the exclusive wholesome foods partner and nutritional advisor to the Canadian Alpine Ski Teams, also highlighted the week by sponsoring a BBQ with Potvin and the members of the ski team. The gathering, which took place after Thursday's on ice training session, was part of the President's Choice 'Feeding the Home Team' program with the national ski teams.

The men's alpine ski team will be heading to New Zealand for their first on-snow training camp end of July.

ABOUT ALPINE CANADA ALPIN
Alpine Canada Alpin (ACA) is the governing body for alpine ski racing in Canada with more than 50,000 athletes, coaches, officials and volunteer members and over 200,000 supporting members. ACA manages the high performance programs for the athletes of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team and the Canadian Para-Alpine Ski Team who represent Canada throughout the world. For more information on Alpine Canada Alpin, visit www.canski.org.

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