With the Canadian Cowboy legacy drifting into the rearview mirror, a young Canadian squad, led by 25-year-old Brodie Seger, aims to take the next step in their evolution as an emerging speed team at the season opening World Cup speed races in Lake Louise, Alberta, starting Saturday.

Armed with a handful of breakout performances last season, including Seger’s fourth place in super-G at the world championships in Cortina, Italy, the talented group of early-20s speedsters have been fine-tuning their process, preparation and all-important team dynamic.

“Our team has a very special dynamic and culture,” Seger, of North Vancouver, explained Thursday. “A bunch of us grew up together and the camaraderie comes naturally … we’ve worked hard to establish what we want our culture to be, to define it and talk about things that are important to us.”

After the retirements of two-time world champion Erik Guay and three-time World Cup winner Manny Osborne-Paradis – who will be making a retirement run victory lap during Saturday’s race – the core of the team shifted to a group with an average age of 23. 

Guay, Paradis and current Canadian men’s speed coach John Kucera led a group, dubbed the Canadian Cowboys, to a whopping 52 podiums over a 15-year span, a phenomenal feat.

Seger insists that the current crop are trending in the right direction.

“When it comes to our identity and culture within our group I feel like we’ve been searching for that the past couple seasons and it’s finally started to feel that we’re finding our groove,” he said.

Seger is fully recovered from a torn shoulder, after a dramatic crash near the finish line in last season’s first downhill in Val-d’Isere, France. The Whistler Mountain Ski Club alumnus made a surprising comeback to race at the worlds in Cortina six weeks after surgery, narrowly missing the podium by 0.04 seconds.

The following day Toronto’s Jack Crawford finished fourth in the men’s combined, while posting the fastest time in the super-G leg.

“After [the] world champs, and I definitely think Brodie feels the same way, coming fourth … it hurts a little bit, but when it comes to confidence, it really helps to show that we’re not that far away, and the podium is just around the corner,” Crawford said.

Joining Seger and Crawford in the downhill races Friday and Saturday is Jeffrey Read of Canmore, Alta., Cameron Alexander of North Vancouver, B.C., and Broderick Thompson of Whistler. Veteran racer Ben Thomsen, 34, of Invermere, B.C., racing independently, will also compete in the two downhill races.

Crawford posted the top Canadian training run on Wednesday, posting the 27th fastest time. The third downhill training run Thursday was cancelled “to preserve the conditions of the slope,” FIS said.

Heavy snowfall blanketed Lake Louise throughout Thursday with 25 centimetres in the forecast. Environment Canada issued a storm warning, projected to subside by Friday afternoon.

“A reasonable expectation is that a majority of the athletes finish in the points,” McNichol said.

“But it’s at the edge of a precipice of change,” said McNichol. “It’s been a long term process for these athletes and it wouldn’t shock me if we did something big this weekend but it also wouldn’t shock me if we just cut our bibs in half, that’s still saying something.”

The Canadian Press office contributed to this report.