The Offical Site of Manuel Osborne-Paradis

A special shout out to our fav downhiller Manny Osborne-Paradis on his 26th birthday! Good luck in Whistler! GO MANNY GO!

Hello!

I met manuel 2 years ago in Val Gardena. This year we have seen each other again. It was a special meeting, he won the race. He recognized me immediately and I celebrated his victory with him. Since then we’ve been are in contact using Facebook. My brother then went to run after Wengen. I contacted manuel, ordered shirts for me but he would not have 3. he immediately replied. We sent my brother to him in the hotel. He gave him 3 shirts, 5 caps and 4 poster. I find this very nice of him. maybe they can make the photo on the hompage of manuel.

Here the Explanation:

Left my brother Joe, in the middle I’m Matthias, on the right Rossi.
Missing: Bayern Regensburg and the Canadian Cowboys Ski Racing Team.

All the Best for Vancouver

Matthias

Well the sun came back out today but it didn’t do me much good.

Despite seeing where I was going I still managed to catch a gate near the top of the course and nearly had a very nice yard sale.

Thankfully I skied through it and carried on but the ripple effect followed me down the track and I ended up missing a gate at the bottom – tough cookies but what can you do?

Overall it was a good experience and I think I learned a few things I’ll use at next year’s Super-G here.

Now my focus is tomorrow’s downhill – which I’m pretty pumped about. The sun is supposed to be shining again on Saturday – so it should be a good race.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I will.

If I had to pick a song as a soundtrack choice for today’s training run – the second one of the week – I’d have to pick that Led Zeppelin classic “Misty Mountain Hop” – because that’s exactly what we had here in Kitzbuehel today – misty, fog-covered mountains.

The organizers lowered the start because visibility from the top was pretty crappy. We still had to navigate the Mausefalle and that’s always fun – if you like near-death experiences – haha!

I’m still experimenting with the track and like yesterday didn’t burn it up – but I’m still happy with what I’ve learned and am hoping to use the experience for a better result on Saturday for the downhill.

The super-g runs tomorrow – hoping my summertime GS training pays off again.

I’ve got my fingers crossed as the weather is supposed to get clearer for Friday and Saturday….always happy to see where I’m going when I ski The Hahnenkamm.

It’s sunshine and bluebird skies here in Kitzbuehel and Hahnenkamm training run #1 is officially in the books.

I’m really happy with my run even though I didn’t burn up the track. I actually pushed the hardest I’ve ever pushed on this track before – there’s no lollygagging on The Streif!

I think my coaches will be pretty happy too as the plan was to go fast in a few sections I haven’t gone so fast in before.The experiment didn’t work today because I made a few mistakes in those sections – if it had gone right I think I would have been about two seconds faster.

Training run #2 goes a little earlier than planned tomorrow so it’ll be early to bed and some quick breakie in the morning and I’ll back to the drawing board. Maybe the mistakes I made today will help me go faster Thursday.

The NFL’s Super Bowl is still a couple of weeks away, but alpine skiing’s Super Bowl is happening this week here in Kitzbuehel, Austria.

On Saturday 60,000 fans will be here to watch us race at The Hahnekamm – and it will be loud!

It’s a very intense race and I’m always very excited to race here. I’m even more excited when I cross the finish line in one piece!

I’ve been on the podium twice now in Wengen, standing on the podium here in Kitzbuehel is and always has been one of my goals. I don’t know what will happen on race day but I know it’ll be wicked fun!

Right now there are huge fat flakes of snow falling right outside my window and it’ supposed to get colder this week so conditions should be perfect for an awesome Hahenkamm…hope you enjoy it as much as I will!

What a fantastic day! I didn’t win but I did place 2nd at one of the most beautiful stops on the World Cup - Wengen, Switzerland.

Even more exciting was the reality that my buddy Marco Buechel was on the victory podium with me.

Marco and I shared a downhill podium in Lake Louise when I came in 2nd and he came in first – today it was a little different but it was just as special as this is his last World Cup tour. I know I will miss him both on and off the race track when he hangs up his skis and I’m sure a lot of other racers will feel the same.

I’ve been here for about a week now and I’ve got to say I feel pretty lucky to be racing at a place like this. The town is amazing and the people here really know their Ski Racing!

I love this place not only because the scenery here is awe-inspiring and super easy on the eyes - but also because it’s one of the sickest downhill races imaginable. It takes two and a half minutes from top to bottom and if you cross the finish line standing up (I’ve never felt my thighs burn more!) you are pretty pumped.

Two years ago I placed third here. Last year I was 5th. Today I came pretty close to adding the Lauberhorn to my victory list – it’s a win I’ve always dreamt of having and I really think some day I’ll be on the top step of the podium here.

Next stop – Kitzbuehel and The Hahnenkamm race…as Terrell Owens says…”get ya popcorn ready!”

On a side note, my buddy Mike Mastarciyan (aka Marsy) wrote a really cool article about Wengen on the CTVOLYMPICS.CA website…here the link if you want to check it out….

A Post Card from Wengen

Did ya miss Manny’s Interview on CTV Olympics this evening? No worries! We’ve got it here!

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/video/index.html?assetid=28fe1da0-3b7c-4ede-8443-fd98cbd37a76

Let's Go Cowboys!

A special thanks to the MacDonald’s for this awesome photos on Lake Windermere… GO COWBOYS GO!

We had an awesome dinner at La Resiga for Christmas eve with the Americans. Our first training day today didn’t go that well for me but i know where I can make up time so I’m not too worried. We are heading to Turrach, Austria to train after Bormio for a couple of days with the Slovenian team. Its super tough times here with only three guys skiing right now, a little lonely at the start. But we all have our girlfriends and family over here right now so it still totally feels like the holidays.