Alpine Canada, USST land NorAm podiums

The women completed their Canadian NorAm tour for the 2021-22 season over four days of racing between Georgian Peaks and Osler Bluff. Many NorAm podium firsts were awarded across GS and slalom between Alpine Canada and the U.S. Ski Team. 

Giant Slalom

Canada’s Britt Richardson dominated the GS days Feb 8-9 at Georgian Peaks, winning back-to-back career-first NorAm positions by more than 0.60 seconds each day. Richardson is a first-year Alpine Canada member and is the youngest on the team at 18-years old. She has been a consistent top-20 NorAm skier through this season and scored her first podium earlier this year, also in GS. 

“Just two years ago I was fighting to make top 30 at this exact race so it was really cool to grab my first NorAm win here and see my progress,” said Richardson. “The conditions were really good and I was feeling ready going into this series. The field is stacked so it’s always a battle to put two solid runs together, so I was really happy to be on top.” 

U.S. Ski Team member Allie Resnick finished behind Richardson both days. Resnick took the season to focus on skiing and not partake in classes at Dartmouth. One of her goals for the year was to podium at a NorAm, which she hadn’t done until this season. Resnick added two more for a total of six NorAm podiums. 

“I’ve never really podiumed at a NorAm before or really had success there, so that’s definitely a goal of mine, to have success at NorAms whatever that means,” Resnick said at the beginning of the season. 

Resnick admits she flip-flops her ‘success’ in GS and slalom every other year. If history held, this would have been a slalom year, but she currently leads the NorAm GS standings and is sitting second overall. 

U.S. team member Ava Sunshine Jemison and Canada’s Stefanie Fleckenstein battled for the final podium spot. On Feb. 8, it was Fleckenstein edging her way ahead of Jemison by 0.13 seconds for third place. Also a University of Colorado junior, Fleckenstein has focused her season on the NorAm and Europa Cup tour and currently leads in the NorAm downhill standings. 

Jemison got her revenge the following day in a stacked podium finish with just 0.03 seconds separating second and fourth place. Jemison finished 0.01 seconds behind teammate Resnick in third for her first NorAm. Fleckenstein finished fourth.

Slalom

The ladies shifted 15 minutes down the road to Osler Bluff for two days of slalom. On Feb. 10, Lila Lapanja hammered down two solid runs to win her seventh NorAm slalom. Lapanja had spent her season on the World Cup after winning the 2020 NorAm slalom title. Currently leading the NorAm slalom standings by 10 points over Kiara Alexander from Canada, Lapanja is on her way to create her World Cup spot again. 

“I’ve been racing on and off the NorAm circuit for about 10 years now,” said Lapanja. “By now, it feels like I really belong on the podium consistently, though it still requires really solid skiing to win, and reminds me that my ultimate goal is to still find that same feeling on the World Cup.”

Jemison stepped onto the podium for a third day in a row. She was 0.17 seconds behind Sarah Bennett of Canada, falling just off her first run pace and down one position for third. Slalom title contender Alexander finished in fourth. 

In the final Canadian NorAm of the season, Jemison went four for four and captured her first NorAm win in the slalom. Jemison was sitting 0.13 seconds behind Alexander in the first run amongst a stacked field including Fleckenstein and Lapanja. Jemison had the second fastest time behind Fleckenstein to take the win, while Alexander fell off the pace and dropped into 11th for the run. Alexander moved into second after a solid first run time. Fleckenstein finished third.

The ladies return to racing on Feb. 14 at Whiteface Mountain after a three-day break. They will kick off the four-day series with super-G and alpine combined. 

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