Vancouver (BC), Canada – Few changes have occurred in the summer season with regards to the coaching and support staff around the Canadian snowboarding team.nIn the high performance area, Robert Joncas has taken over the reign of the program to fill the void left by the departure of Christian Hrab. Joncas will work in close collaboration with the dedicated Nadia M’Seffar, Manager of High Performance.
“We are thrilled to count on some of the best coaches and support staff in the world, working with Canada~Snowboard as we move towards our collective vision of supporting our athletes in the achievement of success,” said Joncas.
In the alpine snowboard program, Mark Fawcett, of Nelson, British Columbia, will continue to lead the program as Program Director alongside Head coach Sylvain Jean, of St-Férréol-Les-Neiges, Quebec. The award-winning duo led Canada to two medals at the 2009 World Championships, a gold medal at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, as well as multiple World Cup podium results last season.
With the departure of athletes Jasey-Jay Anderson, of Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, and Alexa Loo, of Richmond, British Columbia, the team will turn its focus on developing young riders for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, such as Michael Lambert, of Toronto, Ontario, and Matthew Morison, of Burketon, Ontario.
The snowboardcross program can count on the mind of Marcel Mathieu, a French citizen who resides in Whistler, British Columbia, and the free-spirited Austrian, Rene Brunner, to continue on their impressive success on the FIS World Cup Tour and at the 2010 Olympic Games. The snowboardcross team provided two of Canada’s three medals at the 2010 Games, in addition to plenty of World Cup podiums with the duo of Maelle Ricker, of West Vancouver, British Columbia, and Quebec’s Dominique Maltais, ranked first and third in the world, respectively. Both Olympic medalist Ricker and Michael Robertson, of Canmore, Alberta, will be back on the snowboardcross tour this winter.
The freestyle program has been the most affected of all, with a complete change of leadership. Calgary’s Leo Addington is taking over the program, leading the troops after a decade of leadership by Tom Hutchinson. Addington will be joined by Abraham (Abe) Teter, of Lake Tahoe, Calif., as technical coach. The new duo will be providing a new vision and fresh minds to Canada’s Freestyle program.
The 2011 World Cup season gets underway on October 10 in Landgraaf, Netherlands, in an indoor facility where the Parallel Slalom will be showcased. The PGS and SBX teams will be back on snow in September in New Zealand, after a well deserved break off-snow and a summer of dryland training.