Massimo ‘Max’ Carca, who helped lead the Italian ski team to multiple World Cup, world championship and Olympic titles, has been named head coach of Canada’s men’s alpine technical team.
Carca, 40, has spent over a decade coaching superstars including Christof Innerhofer, Dominik Paris, Manfred Moelgg, Peter Fill and Giuliano Razzoli. He will lead Canada’s slalom and giant slalom teams into the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games as part of a new-look coaching team.
Renowned Swiss coach Martin Rufener, who was recently unveiled as Canada’s new alpine director, will also take on the role of head coach of the men’s team, while a new development team will be unveiled next month that aims to nurture the next generation of Canadian ski racing stars.
“Max is a coach who has had great success across all five disciplines and we’re very excited that he has agreed to join us,” said Paul Kristofic, Alpine Canada’s vice-president of sports. “He’s worked with athletes who have won World Cups, world championships and medals at the Olympic Games.
“With Martin also coming on board, we believe we have a very strong leadership team in place. We are nine months away from the Olympics and there’s reason to be optimistic and excited.
“We are also at a critical point in terms of needing to invest in development-level athletes. Historically, it takes five years in the national team system to develop racers who have the potential to podium at the World Cup level and it’s now time to start planning for 2018 and 2022.”
Carca began working with the Italian Ski Federation in 2002, initially as a service man and assistant coach. Shortly thereafter he worked as a multi-discipline coach before becoming head coach of the World Cup slalom team in 2008 – going on to win gold at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Since 2011, Carca has been working with the all-rounders as the head coach of Italy’s World Cup speed and giant slalom teams.
In his new role, which he is due to start on May 1, Carca will work closely with Canadian slalom veterans including Mike Janyk, Julien Cousineau and Brad Spence, as well as emerging young talents like Phil Brown, Erik Read, Trevor Philp, Sasha Zaitsoff, Dustin Cook and Morgan and Conrad Pridy.
“I’m very excited for this new challenge because Canada is a nation in which alpine skiing is a tradition and I have a lot of respect for the (coaching) staff,” said Carca. “The priority for the team is to improve performances in slalom and giant slalom and the objective for next year is to (win) podiums in World Cup.”
Working alongside Carca will be Paolo De Florian, who will help coach the men’s slalom team. The new development team will be led by former men’s technical head coach Kip Harrington, who will coach the nation’s best young male prospects, with Pete Rybarik coaching the ladies. Pete Bosinger, formerly head coach of the men’s team, becomes Alpine Canada’s director of events. Hugues Ansermoz continues as head coach of the ladies’ alpine team, while Jim Pollock also remains head coach of the talented young ladies’ technical team.
“We have a lot of challenges ahead of us, but we have a strong team in place to help us close our performance gaps,” Kristofic said. “We had a challenging season last year, but we have a number of athletes who are close to achieving consistent podium results. We’re not far away and we’re not going to leave anything to chance as we head into a critical season.”
