Erik Guay
Guay in February 2011
Personal information
Born (1981-08-05) August 5, 1981
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
OccupationAlpine skier
Height1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Skiing career
DisciplinesDownhill, super-G
ClubMont-Tremblant
World Cup debutDecember 10, 2000 (age 19)
RetiredNovember 2018 (age 37)
Websiteerikguay.com
Olympics
Teams3 – (2006, 2010, 2014)
Medals0
World Championships
Teams6 – (2003–17)
Medals3 (2 gold)
World Cup
Seasons15 – (2003–14, 2016–18)
Wins5 – (3 DH, 2 SG)
Podiums25 – (17 DH, 8 SG)
Overall titles0 – (12th in 2007)
Discipline titles1 – (SG, 2010)
Medal record
World Cup race podiums
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Downhill 3 6 8
Super-G 2 2 4
Total 5 8 12
World Championships
Gold medal – first place2011 GarmischDownhill
Gold medal – first place2017 St. MoritzSuper-G
Silver medal – second place2017 St. MoritzDownhill

Erik Guay (/ɡeɪ/) (born August 5, 1981) is a Canadian former World Cup alpine ski racer. Racing out of Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Guay won the World Cup season title in super-G in 2010 and was the world champion in downhill in 2011, as well as in the super-G in 2017. With 25 World Cup podiums, he is the career leader for Canada.[1][2]

Career

Born in Montreal,[3] Guay was five when he competed in his first ski race, and when he was twelve his father, himself a ski team coach, took him for professional coaching.[4]

His first podium came in November 2003, when he finished 2nd in a downhill at Lake Louise. He finished in second twice in 2005 in the super-G and third once in downhill. Guay suffered an injury two weeks before the 2006 Winter Olympics, and withdrew from the downhill but finished in fourth place in the super-G, missing the podium by a tenth of a second.[2][5]

He won his first World Cup race the following season at Garmisch, Germany.[5] He was the first Canadian to win a World Cup men's downhill race since 1994, and the first man ever from Québec. Guay's performance in alpine skiing over the 2007 season was enough to place him in third position in the final world cup standings.[6] In 2009, Guay achieved ten top-20 finishes in World Cup speed events but reached only one podium, a third.[6]

The 2010 Winter Olympics took place on home soil for Guay and he competed in three events in Whistler, where he narrowly missed the podium finishing in fifth place twice.[7] Following the games, he achieved three straight podiums during March, including wins in the last two super-G races of the season, which enabled him to come from behind to win the discipline trophy in super-G in 2010 Alpine Skiing World Cup.[8] Guay became the first Canadian man to win a crystal globe for a discipline title since Steve Podborski in 1982.[7]

Guay struggled with knee issues during the 2011 season, forcing him to miss events at both Kitzbühel and Wengen. During the 2011 World Championships at Garmisch, Guay won the downhill after not finishing the super-G earlier in the week. The win was Guay's only World Championship medal, and the second consecutive Canadian to win the world title in downhill, following John Kucera in 2009.

Guay continued to find the podium during the 2014 season. His victory at Val Gardena in December was his fourth and the twentieth World Cup podium of his career,[9] tying him with Steve Podborski as Canada's all-time leader. A week later he took third at Bormio to take the career lead.[1][10] This boosted Guay's hopes of achieving his dream of winning an Olympic medal. Going into Sochi, Guay stated, "I won't be satisfied if I don't walk away with a medal."[1] An injury though threatened his ability to perform at his peak after suffering a slight meniscus tear earlier in January.[1] He finished tenth in the downhill and missed a late gate in the super-G and was disqualified. The following week, he won a downhill at Kvitfjell, Norway.[11] Guay missed all of the 2015 season recovering from his sixth knee surgery.[12]

At the 2017 World Championships in St. Moritz, Guay won the super-G event. At 35, Guay became the oldest World Champion ever, replacing incumbent super-G champion Hannes Reichelt.[13] That weekend, Guay also placed second in the downhill event.[14]

Guay was unable to participate in the alpine skiing events at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang because of a back injury.[2]

Hours before Guay was supposed to compete at Lake Louise in November 2018, he decided to retire from the sport after his teammate Manuel Osborne-Paradis suffered a violent crash. He had already planned to retire after the end of the season but hastened his departure after hearing that Osborne-Paradis had needed an emergency airlift.[2]

Personal life

Guay and his wife Karen have four daughters and they live in Mont-Tremblant.

He is of Norwegian descent through one grandmother.[15] Since 2009, Erik Guay has been part of the Tremblant athletes ambassadors program.

World Cup results

Season titles

Season Discipline
2010Super-G

Season standings

SeasonAgeOverallSlalomGiant
slalom		Super-GDownhillCombined
20032179——3237—
20042255——2428—
20052325——151419
20062418—47611—
20072512—49103—
20082618—41612—
20092722——126—
20102813——113—
20112926——1314—
20123019——127—
20133118——116—
20143213——213—
201533injured, out for season
20163426——2013—
20173514——95—
201836116——36——

Race podiums

  • 5 wins – (3 DH, 2 SG)
  • 25 podiums – (17 DH, 7 SG)
Season Date Location Discipline Place
200429 Nov 2003Canada Lake Louise, CanadaDownhill2nd
20061 Dec 2005United States Beaver Creek, USASuper-G2nd
16 Dec 2005Italy Val Gardena, ItalySuper-G2nd
17 Dec 2005Downhill3rd
200720 Jan 2007France Val d'Isère, FranceDownhill2nd
23 Feb 2007Germany Garmisch, GermanyDownhill3rd
24 Feb 2007Downhill1st
10 Mar 2007 Norway Kvitfjell, NorwayDownhill2nd
15 Mar 2007 Switzerland  Lenzerheide, SwitzerlandSuper-G3rd
20095 Dec 2008United States Beaver Creek, USADownhill3rd
20107 Mar 2010 Norway Kvitfjell, NorwaySuper-G1st
10 Mar 2010Germany Garmisch, GermanyDownhill3rd
11 Mar 2010Super-G1st
201117 Dec 2010Italy Val Gardena, ItalySuper-G3rd
11 Mar 2011 Norway Kvitfjell, NorwayDownhill2nd
201228 Jan 2012Germany Garmisch, GermanyDownhill2nd
4 Feb 2012France Chamonix, FranceDownhill3rd
201315 Dec 2012Italy Val Gardena, ItalyDownhill3rd
26 Jan 2013Austria Kitzbühel, AustriaDownhill2nd
201421 Dec 2013Italy Val Gardena, ItalyDownhill1st
29 Dec 2013Italy Bormio, ItalyDownhill3rd
1 Mar 2014 Norway Kvitfjell, NorwayDownhill1st
201616 Mar 2016 Switzerland  St. Moritz, SwitzerlandDownhill3rd
201716 Dec 2016Italy Val Gardena, ItalySuper-G3rd

World Championship results

  Year   Age  Slalom  Giant 
 slalom 		Super-GDownhillCombined
200321——6617
200523——1922DNS
200725——64—
200927——19DNF—
201129——DNF1—
201331——23DSQ—
201533injured, out for season
201735——12—

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Reguly, Eric (January 30, 2014). "Erik Guay obsessed with closing the gap". The Globe and Mail.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Strashin, Jamie (November 22, 2018). "Canadian skiing great Erik Guay abruptly retires after teammate's violent crash". CBC Sports. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
  3. ↑ Wolfe, Cory (February 10, 2006). "Downhillers plan to attack course", Calgary Herald, p. E1.
  4. ↑ "Go Erik!". Archived from the original on 2004-04-11.
  5. 1 2 Erik Guay at the International Ski and Snowboard Federation
  6. 1 2 "Go Erik!". Archived from the original on 2004-04-11.
  7. 1 2 Kingston, Gary (2010-03-11). "Canada's Erik Guay 'completely ecstatic' winning season's World Cup super G title". The Vancouver Sun.
  8. ↑ "Guay Continues His Late Surge to Seize the Super-G World Cup". The New York Times. Associated Press. 2010-03-11. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
  9. ↑ McKee, Hank (December 21, 2013). "Alliance pays off for Canadians and Norwegians; Guay wins Val Gardena". Ski Racing. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
  10. ↑ McKee, Hank (December 29, 2013). "Svindal bests Bormio downhill". Retrieved March 1, 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. ↑ McKee, Hank (March 1, 2014). "Guay wins Kvitfjell downhill with Ganong fourth". Ski Racing. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
  12. ↑ Hall, Vicki (27 November 2015). "Erik Guay feeling good heading into season-opening race". Toronto Sun.
  13. ↑ Nichols, Paula (8 February 2017). "Guay wins gold, Osborne-Paradis bronze in world championship super-G". Canada Olympic Team.
  14. ↑ Hall, Vicki (12 February 2017). "'The biggest achievement ever': Canadian ski legend Erik Guay wins second world alpine medal in four days". National Post.
  15. ↑ "Vinneren er litt norsk også". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). 9 February 2017. p. 29.
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