While it’s the end of the ski season for many in the Bow Valley, it wasn’t for 206 young ski racers that gathered in Lake Louise for the 10th annual Doug Meyers Invitational last weekend, April 13-14.
Participating clubs included: Bow Valley Quickies, Calgary Alpine SnoFlyers, Elkwater Race Club, Lake Louise Black Dogs, Golden Kicking Horse Alpine Team, SkiMeisters, Evolve, Westcastle Ski Club and race hosts and the Lake Louise Grizzlies Ski Club.
Possibly the young skiers took advantage of the home course, but for the first time in its 10-year history, the Grizzlies won the event.
Athletes aged four to 11 competed in GS, dual slalom and terrain events over two days.
Medals were awarded to the top 10 male and female racers in the following age groups: 5 & under, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. Team awards presented on Sunday were calculated based on each team’s top seven times in the GS, with no more than three times taken from each age category and was won by the Lake Louise Grizzlies.
Two national ski cross team members, Tristan Tafel and Louis-Pierre Helie, were on hand to demonstrate ski cross, assist with the terrain event and present awards.
The Doug Meyers Invitational is a memorial cup in honour of Doug Meyers, a former racer and popular instructor at Lake Louise. Doug died of an aggressive form of brain cancer on April 10, 2003 at 30 years of age. He leaves a legacy of love, acceptance and enthusiasm for life. The race is designed to showcase the values of sportsmanship, fun and fair play that were so important to Doug.
Among the young skiers, Avery Lebsack (11-years-old) of the Grizzlies was the fastest GS skier on Saturday at 45.08 seconds and on Sunday, was quickest on the dual slalom course at 25.07 seconds.
The faster terrain skier on Sunday was Calgary SnoFlyer James Small, 11, at 24.75 seconds.
