Flashback: Feb. 16, 2010

Ricker rides to historic gold
Bob Mackin, QMI Agency

WEST VANCOUVER: The fog lifted at Cypress Mountain Tuesday and Maelle Ricker became the first Canadian woman and first British Columbian to win Olympic gold at home.

Ricker, a 31-year-old from Squamish, B.C., beat Deborah Anthonioz of France and Olivia Nobs of Switzerland in the women’s snowboardcross final. World champion Helen Olafsen of Norway crashed midway.

"I tried to explode out of the gate, I really wanted to get out of that gate as fast as I can,” said Ricker. "It was really, really hard today to get a clean run all the way down the course, but I just held on and did my best."

The North Vancouver native who grew up near Cypress was the undisputed favourite after winning three of five world cup races this season and placing third in another.

Ricker’s win was the biggest snowboarding victory for Canada since Ross Rebagliati took the Olympic gold medal in giant slalom at Nagano 1998. Ricker also made her Olympic debut at Nagano, finishing fifth in halfpipe. Tuesday’s win was redemption for Turin 2006 where Ricker finished fourth in snowboardcross despite crashing before the finish line.

“Turin was such a motivator for me, it just made me work that much harder and just go for it for today,” Ricker said.

Ricker’s American rival Lindsey Jacobellis, the Turin silver medallist, was eliminated from contention in the semifinal. The two appeared to make contact early in the race. Jacobellis was the consolation final winner.

“I don’t think we clipped, we were definitely really close right out of the start, and I don’t know what happened to her,” Ricker said. “I don’t know where she went down, I just tried to stay on my line and focus on what I was doing.”

Turin bronze medallist Dominique Maltais of Petite-Riviere-St-Francois, Que., was eliminated after she crashed in both qualifying runs.

Cypress is Canada’s most lucrative venue of the 2010 Games. Montreal moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau captured Canada’s historic first home-won gold medal on Sunday at Cypress. On Monday, Mike Robertson of Edmonton got silver in the men’s snowboardcross.

The West Vancouver resort has also provided the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, known as VANOC, with its biggest weather challenges. Warm and wet El Nino-influenced weather wiped snow off the slopes in January. More than 350 truckloads of snow were brought 160 kilometres from Allison Pass in Manning Provincial Park to salvage competitions.

Allison Pass, coincidentally, is named for John Fall Allison, a B.C. gold rush pioneer in the 19th century.

Allison Pass: is VANOC's aim true?

The snow situation is more dire than VANOC told the media at a Jan. 28 news conference. Why be surprised? This is a group so adept at the art of the snow job.

A convoy of dump trucks is traveling 160 kilometres with loads of snow from Allison Pass in Manning Provincial Park. The snow is being placed on the snowboarding and freestyle skiing courses for the Games at Cypress Mountain. El Nino brought heavy rains and high temperatures to the southwest coast in January. Snow disappeared from the slopes and Cypress closed Jan. 13.

Allison Pass apparently has pristine powder.

It also may appeal to superstition among the VANOC sport department. It's named for pioneer John Fall Allison (1825-1897), who was born in Leeds, England, joined the 1849 California gold rush and came north to British Columbia hoping to find more gold. In his later years, he owned 5,000 acres but was heavily in-debt.

Gold and debt. Two things you'll be hearing about constantly when the Bailout Games open Feb. 12 in Vancouver.