NorAm wrap: Canada takes overall titles

The NorAm Cup for the 2007-08 season ended with the finals in Lake Placid (USA) in mid-March. Both overall titles went to Canada this year, as Larissa Yurkiw won the ladies' standings whilst Julien Cousineau was best in the men's overall.
THE NORAM CUP for the 2007-08 season ended with the finals in Lake Placid (USA) in mid-March. Both overall titles went to Canada this year, as Larissa Yurkiw won the women's standings whilst Julien Cousineau was best in the men's overall. All of the men's event titles went to U.S. athletes with Cody Marshall taking the slalom, Jake Zamansky the giant slalom, Kevin Francis the super G, Jeremy Transue the downhill and Maximilian Hammer the super combined. In the ladies, Yurkiw shared the downhill title with Chelsea Marshall (USA) who finished 2nd overall and also captured the titles in the super G and super combined. Another Canadian, Anna Goodman, took the slalom while Megan McJames (USA) was best in the giant slalom.
    Overall, the NorAm Cup continues to focus on quality of competition for the participating athletes. This focus includes quality of the field, difficulty of terrain, snow surface preparation, course setting, compatibility with the calendar and a professionally operated race series. As before, the early season technical races in Colorado for both genders were very high quality both in terms of the sites and the field. Those races typically have many World Cup athletes present which provides a great opportunity for North American racers to evaluate themselves against the best in the world. The evaluation of high quality also applies to the traditional speed events in Lake Louise and Panorama (CAN).
    The technical starts in early January were excellent with the women again in Mt. Ste. Anne (CAN) while the men were at Sunday River. A novelty in the calendar this year was to produce the USA speed events in January. The idea was sound, but very inclement weather set in at the site resulting in 4 feet of snow being reduced to mud in a period of 48 hours. Consequently all of the January speed starts were lost. Two slaloms for each gender followed in the Ontario Province of Canada, another premiere.
    The finals at Lake Placid consisted of a full program for both genders. The organizers did an awesome job in producing these races, but also in building an atmosphere of celebration and acknowledgment of the athletes throughout the community. We are very excited to return there again in March 2009 for the NorAm Cup Finals.
    Both USSA and ACA dedicate professional staff to operation of the NorAm Cup. Particular acknowledgment needs to go to our professional coordinators: Bruce Hamstead (CAN), Dan Gallaugher (CAN) and Tom Johnston (USA). Over the last 7 years, these individuals have really raised the bar for our NorAm Cup Race Organizing Committees. Special thank you also belongs to the wonderful partners who host and produce the NorAm Cup races for the athletes.

— Contributed by Walt Evans, USSA Competition Director