SKIING : Boyd Holds Up Canadians’ Downhill Tradition

Americans, lacking a world-class downhill racer of their own to root for, could do worse than to adopt a Canadian, sort of as a gesture of North American solidarity and to help foster the new spirit of free trade between neighbors.

Besides, they’ve got some good downhillers up here in the frozen North, 75 miles above Vancouver.

Perhaps the most likely candidate is a sandy-haired, part-time guitar player named Rob Boyd, who is back home this week at Whistler/Blackcomb Resort. He will soon return to the World Cup wars, but first must find out when and where the battles are being fought.

Because of an Alpine snow shortage, the downhill originally set for Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany, next Saturday has been moved tentatively to Schladming, Austria, on Thursday. And this switch comes after only one of three scheduled men’s downhills was held in December--at Val Gardena, Italy, where Boyd had been the winner in both 1986 and ‘87, and was third in ’88. This time, he was 12th.

“It was kind of disappointing,” Boyd said. “This year (‘89), it just didn’t happen for me there.”

A 12th place, of course, would have been cause for celebration on the U.S. team, which managed to get a 27th with Jeff Olson.

Bill Johnson, who gave the United States its one moment of downhill glory in the 1984 Winter Olympics, did not start at Val Gardena because of a knee injury, but the outspoken Boyd dismissed him, saying: “You see him ski now, he’s pathetic. I mean, he shouldn’t even be up there. He looks scared coming down the course.”

Fear is an understandable emotion for downhill racers, who reach speeds approaching 100 m.p.h. during a two-minute plunge down a narrow, icy mountain track. Even Boyd, who will turn 24 next month, admits that there have been moments.

“There’s always fear,” he said. “But you have to overcome it. One of the best ways is having total self-confidence in your skiing.

“Three years ago, I won Val Gardena for the first time, and it was also going to be my first time to run Kitzbuhel (in Austria). I’d always heard so many horror stories about (the Hahnenkamm downhill course) and was wondering how bad it really was.

“When I got there, I guess because my confidence level was so high, skiing was no problem. It didn’t bother me at all.

“But last year when I got (to Kitzbuhel), my confidence wasn’t quite so high, and it affected me. It pretty well scared me then. I did a lot of what we call positive self-talk, trying to psych myself up and build up my confidence. I overcame it the second day and I was sixth (in the race).”

Boyd, who came here eight years ago from Vernon, B.C., when his father, Sandy, became general manager of Whistler Mountain, is the latest in an illustrious line of Canadian downhill stars that has included Steve Podborski, Ken Read and Todd Brooker.

They were known collectively as “the Crazy Canucks” because of their daredevil, all-out style, and although Boyd enjoys being compared to them, he said: “I was on the team at the tail end with Brooker and kind of got a taste of his kind of era, but then it was only one or two years and it was gone. So, I (had to) cast my own mold.”

The mold was almost broken in Are, Sweden, two years ago, when Boyd suffered his only scary injury.

“It was around New Year’s,” he said. “I’d been training for a couple of days already and it was my last run (before racing resumed). I was not really fully paying attention, and (as) I came off a bump, my ski kind of caught and I went through the air. I landed on the back of my neck. . . . I almost broke my neck.

“It somehow ripped the helmet right off my head. I remember, as I was sliding to a stop, seeing my helmet roll by, and also thinking there’s going to be other guys coming behind me and I’d better get off the course.”

Boyd somehow skied down to where his coach was standing, then decided, “I’d better lie down,” which he did, in the snow.

“I don’t know whether it was shock or what but I started getting really dreamy in my head,” he said. “I couldn’t for the life of me remember what hotel I was staying in, or what run I was on. I kind of looked up at the sky and remember saying, ‘I’ve dreamt this before. This is like a dream I had.’ I was deja-vuing the whole thing.

“They put a brace on me right away and took me on down in the toboggan. Apparently it happens sometimes, people break their back or their neck and don’t know it. They go to get up, and that’s when they sever the spinal cord.”

X-rays were negative, though, and Boyd said he was back on skis before the next race, a makeup downhill at Val d’Isere, France.

“I had trouble getting my neck right back into the tuck position but I went to the masseur a lot and kept stretching,” he said.

“By race day, I was still pretty sore, and it didn’t go so well. I finished in the 20s, but after that I totally forgot about it. Next race, I was fifth--not bad, considering.”

Boyd, who joins in local jam sessions with his guitar, is also an accomplished woodworker and board sailor. After a trip to the Columbia River Gorge at Hood River, Ore., last summer, he said: “I think I’ve found a new career for when I’ve finished skiing.”

That day won’t come until at least after the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville, France.

“Then I’ll assess my career and see if I’ve done what I wanted,” he said. “If I think I can improve more, then maybe I’ll keep going.”

The highlight of Boyd’s skiing career, to this point, occurred last February when he won the final World Cup downhill of the season right here, before friends and relatives, in Whistler, B.C.

That made him the only Canadian male skier to win a World Cup race in Canada, and that night, you can bet there was a whole lotta strummin’ goin’ on, eh?

Skiing Notes

The World Cup circuit picks up where it left off in mid-December with a slalom for the women today at Piancavallo, Italy, and a slalom and a giant slalom for the men today and Sunday at Kranjska Gora, Yugoslavia. Defending women’s champion Vreni Schneider of Switzerland has recovered from a knee operation and will start today. A women’s giant slalom scheduled for Sunday at Piancavallo was canceled because of inadequate snow cover. . . . Taped highlights of the men’s downhill last month at Val Gardena, Italy, will be shown on Channel 7 today at 2 p.m. . . . Alberto Tomba, Italy’s double 1988 Olympic gold medalist who is recovering from a broken collarbone, will resume training next week.

Disabled skiers from around Southern California will race at Bear Mountain this weekend in the Chap Stick Challenge’s regional qualifying event for the U.S. Disabled Ski Championships March 11-16 at Stratton Mountan, Vt. . . . Olympic champion Diana Golden, the No. 1-ranked female disabled skier in the world, will be the forerunner for today’s race. . . . The New Year’s night storm helped to improve snow conditions in Southland mountains, where Mt. Baldy and Ski Sunrise have joined Snow Summit, Snow Valley, Snow Forest, Bear Mountain and Mountain High in daily operation.

The fourth event on the U.S. Pro Tour has been moved from Heavenly Valley to Squaw Valley this weekend because of marginal snow conditions in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Racing will start on the Searchlight Run at 11 a.m. both today and Sunday. . . . Hilary Engisch will give a demonstration of freestyle skiing and offer pointers on how to handle moguls during “Ski Budweiser,” a weekend of activities sponsored by guess who, today and Sunday at Mammoth Mountain.